The stolen lady A novel of World War II and the Mona Lisa

Morelli (The Night Portrait) delivers a sprawling saga of magnetic parallel stories involving the Mona Lisa. In 15th-century Italy, Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a portrait of Lisa, the wife of silk trader Francesco del Giocondo. Meanwhile, Lisa's longtime servant Bellina Sardi has been caught up in a plot to rise up against the ruling Medici. Her loyalty is split between Lisa and the insurgents, who intend to seize assets (including art) from landowners, and she decides to protect the unfinished portrait from their grasp. In an alternate narrative, Anne Guichard works as an archivist's assistant at the Louvre in 1939 Paris. She accompanies the head archivist on the first of what becomes a number of missions to the countryside, where they hide pieces from the museum's collection from the Nazis. Anne also risks her life as she also becomes involved in the Resistance. Morelli makes both story lines richly drawn, revealing the remarkable fortitude of two women who saved a masterpiece, each during a moment of upheaval. This will pull in readers from the very first page. Agent: Jenny Bent, the Bent Agency. (Sept.)

It's 1939, and the staff of the Louvre are packing up and moving the institution's treasures to secure them from the advancing German army. Anne Guichard, a young archivist, is asked to go with the museum staff as they seek to protect the art, including the Mona Lisa, from the violence of war. In the 1500s, a middle-aged Leonardo da Vinci navigates his highly political world, seeking to broaden humankind's knowledge. He only reluctantly takes on a commission to paint Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant. Bellina Sardi, Lisa's servant, struggles with her desire to have a family of her own while spending her life raising first Lisa, then Lisa's children. VERDICT Morelli (The Night Portrait) explores the power of art and ideas to expand the world, even in the darkest times. As Anne works with the French Resistance and museum staff to save an enduring work of art, readers will understand how vital art is to our understanding of ourselves. And the enigmatic Mona Lisa remains, with her soft smile, wearing mourning clothes--the portrait of an ordinary woman in an extraordinary painting.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL