The Gypsy Madonna

November 27, 2006
British author Montefiore (Last Voyage of the Valentina
) offers up an uneven mix of family intrigue and international mystery in her latest. When Anouk, the ailing mother (and business partner) of Manhattan antiques dealer Mischa, donates The Gypsy Madonna
, a previously unknown Titian painting, to the Met shortly before her death, Mischa is astonished; he never knew she owned the painting. After Mischa vows to discover how the artwork came into his mother's possession, the novel flashes back to his troubled childhood in postwar Bordeaux, France. He and Anouk are shunned by their fellow villagers, but after a charismatic American, Coyote, arrives and wins Anouk's and Mischa's hearts, the dashing stranger's celebrity-like status among the locals rubs off on Mischa and Anouk. The three, at Coyote's insistence, move to New Jersey, but after several years of playing house, Coyote disappears, and Mischa begins to run with a rough crowd. Graphic sex scenes add grit, but Mischa's coming-of-age mostly putters along until the book's concluding section, when Mischa's globe-trotting investigation into the truth about the painting lays bare a number of secrets. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book is an extended flashback that lacks narrative urgency.

March 1, 2007
This melodramatic effort sticks to the successful plot formula of British novelist Montefiore's recent U.S. debut, "Last Voyage of the Valentina", in which a drawing or painting leads the main character homeward in order to rediscover a mysterious heritage. When New York City antiques dealer Anouk dies, her son Mischa is astonished to learn that she has bequeathed an original Titian painting, "The Gypsy Madonna", to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To understand how Anouk acquired the painting and to learn the truth about his roots, Mischa returns to the French village of Maurillac where during World War II he had endured a traumatic childhood that left him mute. Montefiore describes the French countryside in lyrical terms, but her characters are too one-dimensional to evoke much sympathy. Readers who enjoy wartime stories of France would do better to read the novels of Joanne Harris. An optional purchase for larger librariesLoralyn Whitney, Edinboro Univ. of Pennsylvania

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2006
Mischa Fontaine was born in a French village in 1941, the son of a German army officer. In the bitter aftermath of World War II, his parentage leads to both Mischa and his mother, Anouk, being tortured and ostracized. When he is six, a stranger named Coyote arrives in the village, falls in love with Anouk, and eventually convinces Anouk and Mischa to flee with him to America, where they settle in New Jersey. Fast forward to 1985: Anouk is dead, and Mischa, who thought he knew everything about his mother, is shocked to learn that she donated an original Titian, " The Gypsy Madonna," to the Met shortly before her death. Where did Anouk get the priceless painting? As Mischa tries to unravel the mystery, he is forced to confront his past, with its tortuous, bittersweet memories. This surprisingly nuanced romantic saga is chockablock with all the right ingredients: love, hate, sentiment, magic, and mystery. Montefiore's " Last Voyage of the Valentina "(2006) was a hit with the Maeve Binchy crowd; this one will be, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)