In her debut novel, The House Girl, former attorney Tara Conklin uses art to connect the lives of two very different women separated by more than a century.
In 1852 Virginia, 17-year-old house slave Josephine looks after her dying mistress, Lu Anne Bell, while trying to dodge her master's fists. Although her last escape attempt ended in recapture, abuse and the stillbirth of her child, Josephine is ready to run away again. Waiting for her chance, she soothes half-mad Lu Anne by putting finishing touches on the paintings Lu Anne can't complete. Josephine's talent far surpasses Lu Anne's, but her world has no place for a slave with her talents.
In 2004, ambitious young attorney Lina Sparrow is assigned to a landmark slavery reparations case. If she succeeds, she could become a partner at her firm, but her supervisor's indifference and a backstabbing co-worker hamper her efforts. Then, through friends of her artist father, Lina learns of rumors that the celebrated Southern artist Lu Anne Bell's paintings may have been the work of a house slave. If Lina can find a descendant of Josephine to act as plaintiff, their case will have the perfect public face, but first she must solve the mystery of what happened to Josephine more than 150 years ago.
Alternating between Josephine and Lina's points of view, The House Girl draws two distinct portraits that intersect in surprising ways. Skillfully executed and packed with surprises, this novel of the ways in which art saves our humanity is an engrossing, do-not-miss adventure. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager, Latah County Library District; blogger at Infinite Reads