Stolen Beauty, Albanese Laurie Lico

Albanese artfully weaves Adeles story with Marias harrowing life under the Nazis, but its hard to read Stolen Beauty without seeing ugly echoes in todays headlines. Seven decades after World War II, have we learned nothing? --USA TODAY

From the dawn of the twentieth century to the devastation of World War II, this exhilarating novel of love, war, art, and family gives voice to two extraordinary women and brings to life the true story behind the creation and near destruction of Gustav Klimts most remarkable paintings.

In the dazzling glitter of 1903 Vienna, Adele Bloch-Bauer--young, beautiful, brilliant, and Jewish--meets painter Gustav Klimt. Wealthy in everything but freedom, Adele embraces Klimts renegade genius as the two awaken to the erotic possibilities on the canvas and beyond. Though they enjoy a life where sex and art are just beginning to break through the fa ade of conventional society, the city is also troubled by a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism as political hatred simmers in the shadows of Adeles coffeehouse afternoons and cultural salons.

Nearly forty years later, Adeles niece Maria Altmann is a newlywed when the Nazis invade Austria--and overnight, her beloved Vienna becomes a war zone. When her husband is arrested and her family is forced out of their stately home, Maria must summon the courage and resilience that is her aunts legacy if she is to survive and keep her loved ones--and their history--alive.

Will Maria and her family escape the grip of Nazi rule? And what will become of the paintings for which her aunt sacrificed nearly everything?