Welcome to Litsy!

5/5 🌟

The slow burn. The quiet ache. The yearning so palpable it aches. I‘m in love with this book.

It has all the elements of a perfect read: captivating characters, beautiful prose, an intriguing plot, and emotions so deep and raw, they stay with you long after. Highly recommend!

If you loved this book as much as I did and have suggestions for similar reads, let me know.

I‘m savouring every page. I don‘t even like romance, but damn—this one has all the feels.

Really loving the way this is written, I'm hooked.

I love well done historical fiction; Joseph travels to post-war South of France after receiving an enigmatic invitation from reclusive artist Tartuffe. Once there he is drawn into the life of Tartuffe, his paintings and his niece Ettie. I was so taken with and drawn into the setting, the descriptions of the colours and light, the food, and then the unsettling sense of menace that builds alongside Ettie‘s frustrations and awakening. Excellent.

Thought the writing was beautiful, the story great and I‘m in love with the cover ❤️

#UKDailyDeal 19/3/2025

#motherdaughterread
Daughter started the Collins the minute she got in from work!

I think I like the name on the American publication best - The Artist and The Feast. It fits the story better.
At first I thought this was overwritten and I wasn't sure I would get along with it. But after a bit either she toned it down or I just got use to it and it didn't bother me. I loved how the chapters go from mostly Joseph's POV to mostly Ettie as we see more and more of her layers and she comes out from behind her uncle (The Artist)👇

These will be my first reads off the #WP25 long list! I have read 3 before the list dropped, I got lucky and scored The Artist from Edelweiss and Crooked Seeds was at my library, just waiting for me!

It looks like the US version of The Artist will be called The Artist and The Feast and Edelweiss has our release date set for May 5, over a month after the shortlist drops.

Set in the 1920s, Joseph, an aspiring art critic, travels to Provence to try to interview Edouard Tartuffe, a notoriously difficult, reclusive artist who lives an isolated life with his niece, Ettie.

This was such a beautiful, sensory book with its depictions of beauty (a Provençal summer, the food) and horror (The Great War) and the questions of what is art, who is an artist and what do we see when we actually look?