First published 2013
Marie van Goethem watches her world collapse when her father dies suddenly in 1878 Paris. Their mother drowns her grief in absinthe while the rent comes due. Marie gets sent to the Paris Opéra to train as a ballet dancer for seventeen francs a week. Her older sister Antoinette takes work as a stage extra in a production of L'Assommoir. Marie throws herself into dance and catches the attention of Edgar Degas, who uses her as a model for his sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. She also attracts a wealthy patron whose help may come with dangerous expectations. Antoinette falls for Émile Abadie, a man who leads her away from honest work toward the shadowy world of Parisian street life. As Paris transforms around them through artistic and social upheaval, both sisters face impossible choices between survival and morality. Marie and Antoinette discover that in a city that preys on vulnerable young women, they have only each other.
Genres: art, historical-fiction, biographical-fiction, 19th-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, moral-dilemma, sisters
Setting: Paris, Paris Opéra
Period: 1878
357 pages · Hardcover · Riverhead books/Penguin USA