Description

A mesmerising historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.

“Spellbinding, wonderfully atmospheric, and impossible to forget” Sarah Jessica Parker

“With echoes of Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep, I am You is earthy and fleshy and pulsates with suppressed emotions of rage, envy and desire.” Elizabeth Fremantle

At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel family. When their daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world.

While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry, until the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.

Publisher Review

"Victoria Redel's fourth novel is not only a vivid evocation of 17th-century Amsterdam but also a powerful exploration of the nature of female creativity" Sunday Times "Exquisitely drawn... a love story full of colour and light" Stacey Halls, bestselling author of The Familiars "A stunning accomplishment" Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours and Day "[This] lush, sexy, absorbing novel . . . brings to life two artists who are inextricably linked in passion and competition" Melissa Febos, bestselling author of Girlhood "A beautiful tale of extraordinary women making their own way in ordinary times" Book Riot "With clean lines and bright colors, Victoria Redel has put the life into still life, giving us a portrait of Holland at the height of its glory-and an unforgettable picture of the erotic, entangled, tragic nature of art itself" Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters "Sensuous...Readers will relish this memorable portrait of two fiercely independent women" Publishers Weekly, *STARRED* Review "A novel that combines a 17th-century atmosphere with a 21st-century sensibility . . . [Redel's] characters' nuanced, complex relationship is terrific [as] they intertwine on multiple levels of secrecy and closeted identity" Kirkus "Vivid . . . [a] totally transportive epic of making art and love" Booklist "An epic tale of love, self-discovery, and artistic identity inspired by the life of painter Maria van Oosterwijck" Library Journal "Sensual, thought-provoking, and unforgettable . . . Redel excels at sensory and imagistic writing, particularly in the thrilling qualities of color, inks, paints, and pigments, and revelatory art" Shelf Awareness