One woman saved them. Her family called her a traitor. The truth took fifty years.
Paris, 1938. Claire Weinberg arrives from the vineyards of Beaujolais with paint-stained fingers and a dream. At the academy she meets Valérie—cynical, fearless, fiercely loyal—and the two discover Paris together over cheap wine, stolen rooftops, and endless hours at the Louvre. Then the Germans come, and the two friends are torn apart.
Beaujolais, 1943. Claire has returned to her family's crumbling manor in the hills. Valérie has vanished into the resistance. When they find each other again, it is not over art—but over the lives of Jewish children whose parents have been taken. Together, they turn the manor into a secret refuge. Claire draws with the children, plays piano in the dark, and builds a fragile world of beauty inside walls surrounded by horror. But a cultured SS commander takes a dangerous interest in the gifted painter above the valley. A wounded British officer arrives carrying secrets—and something far more dangerous. And a teenage boy is watching from the shadows—and what he sees will haunt him for fifty years.
France, 1998. Art restorer Madeleine arrives at the manor to settle the family inheritance—a place she was taught never to visit. An elderly stranger is already there—a man who once lived within these walls, carrying a story that will shatter everything she thought she knew about her family.
Inspired by true stories of the French Resistance, The Painter of Hidden Children is an unputdownable novel of art, deception, and a friendship forged in the darkest years of the century. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Kate Quinn.
