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If You Like . . . The Forgery of Venus Booklist Books related to Michael Gruber's The Forgery of Venus: art, artists, forgery, literary thrillers...

• The Forgery of Venus
  Author: Gruber, Michael
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060874483 Date: 2008
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  Gruber creates a fascinating world of secrets, genius, and conspiracies and combines it with brilliant storytelling, complex characterizations, and sterling prose to produce this spellbinding novel.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Art Stars
  Updated 2.26.08
  

Overbooked review: The Spanish painter Velazquez was noted for his seemingly effortless ability to play with visual reality. Gruber also excels, with seemingly effortless ability, to play with reality in The Forgery of Venus.

Chaz Wilmot is an immensely talented but conflicted artist who has been unable to find his place in the art world. He has failed to find artistic success on his terms and has sabotaged his second marriage. He barely manages to pay his critically ill son's medical bills. Chaz signs up for a medical trial to test a drug that may increase creativity. His creativity is enhanced, but he has an unusual reaction to the drug and begins to experience shifts in reality in which he seems to become Velazquez.

An old friend, now active in the art world, offers Chaz an opportunity to earn a substantial fee restoring a frieze in Venice. Chaz's ability to impeccably recreate the frieze in the style of the Tiepolo leads to another offer that he can't refuse. Enmeshed in a conspiracy to forge lost Velazquez art works with some very dubious characters Chaz struggles to define reality and escape from madness.

Rich with insights into the art world this fast paced thriller is the real thing - fans of intelligent, darkly suspenseful books should revel in The Forgery of Venus.

Review quotes:

"Nobody mixes art, sex, drugs and wit quite like Gruber" " Fast, frightening and, as usual, richly imagined." Kirkus

"Gruber writes passionately and knowledgeably about art and its history and he writes brilliantly about the shadowy lines that blur reality and unreality. Fans of intelligent, literate thrillers will be well rewarded." - PW

"Gruber is on a roll. Not even a year after The Book of Air and Shadows, he delivers another terrific art-historical thriller, this time not about an undiscovered Shakespeare play but a forged Velázquez painting—or is it really a forgery?" Booklist

Suggested Reading: Art Stars | Literary Thrillers

Links:

Michael Gruber - web site

Wiki- Velazquez