First published 2011
Clara Driscoll leads the women's division at Louis Comfort Tiffany's New York studio in 1893. While Tiffany gains fame for his stained glass windows at the Chicago World's Fair, Clara creates the designs for nearly every iconic lamp that bears his name. She works in the shadows, her contributions unacknowledged by the company and the public. Clara faces an impossible choice. Tiffany's strict policy forces any woman who marries to resign immediately. She loves her artistic work but also desires companionship and romance. Five different men enter her life in various ways, including Tiffany himself. As Clara's frustration with the lack of recognition grows, she considers protesting against the very company she helped build. Set against New York's contrasts at the turn of the twentieth century, from elegant society balls to the struggles of Lower East Side immigrants, Clara must ultimately choose between professional fulfillment and personal happiness.
Genres: art, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chicago, New York
Period: 1893, Turn of the 20th Century
401 pages · Hardcover · Random House