Spotlight & Giveaway: The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Laura Morelli’s new release: The Keeper of Lost Art

During World War II, a girl makes an unbreakable connection with a boy sheltering in her family’s Tuscan villa, where the treasures of the Uffizi Galleries are hidden. A moving coming-of-age story about the power of art in wartime, based on true events.

 
As Allied bombs rain down on Torino in the autumn of 1942, Stella Costa’s mother sends her to safety with distant relatives in a Tuscan villa. There, Stella finds her family tasked with a great responsibility: hiding nearly 300 priceless masterpieces from Florence, including Botticelli’s famous Primavera.

With the arrival of German troops imminent, Stella finds herself a stranger in her family’s villa and she struggles to understand why her aunt doesn’t like her. She knows it has something to do with her parents—and the fact that her father, who is currently fighting at the front, has been largely absent from her life.

When a wave of refugees seeks shelter in the villa, Stella befriends Sandro, an orphaned boy with remarkable artistic talent. Amid the growing threats, Sandro and Stella take refuge in the villa’s “treasure room,” where the paintings are hidden. There, Botticelli’s masterpiece and other works of art become a solace, an inspiration, and the glue that bonds Stella and Sandro as the dangers grow.

A troop of German soldiers requisitions the villa and puts everyone to forced labor. Now, with the villa full of German soldiers, refugees, a secret guest, and hundreds of priceless treasures, no one knows who will emerge unscathed, and whether the paintings will be taken as spoils or become unintended casualties.

Inspired by the incredible true story of a single Tuscan villa used as a hiding place for the treasures of Florentine art during World War II, The Keeper of Lost Art takes readers on a breathtaking journey into one of the darkest chapters of Italy’s history, highlighting the incredible courage of everyday people to protect some of the most important works of art in western civilization.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Keeper of Lost Art 

They spend the rest of the afternoon hiding things.

The air cools quickly as the sun sinks behind the distant hills. Stella’s aunt lowers herself to her knees in the kitchen garden. The olive leaves turn golden with the late afternoon light, their winding trunks casting long shadows on the caked earth. Stella loiters at the edge of the garden with a trowel while her cousins dart among the gnarled trunks in a lazy game of hide- and- seek it looks like they’ve played a thousand times. Nearby, Mariasole’s orange cat, Luigi, hunkers in the grass like a small tiger.

“Giulia Rossi says Alessio is coming to visit us soon with his father,” Livia says, revealing her face from behind a tree trunk. Stella thinks her eyes look radiant and flashing in the golden light.

“I told you he’s going to ask her to marry him!” Mariasole bursts from behind another gnarled trunk.

“Everyone’s talking about it.” Zia Angela exchanges a fleeting, flickering glance with her husband, who leans against a stone wall, watching his wife and daughters with a mixture of fondness and concern as they dig fresh holes in the ground. A shovel is propped alongside him. He cups his hands around a cigarette and lights it, the smoke curling up and dissipating into the air. Stella thinks he looks like he wants to say something. But he stays silent.

“As far as families, you could do worse.” Zia Angela begins to dig among the overripe eggplants, a few rotted tomatoes, and tangled masses of thyme and oregano. With a trowel, she pries a hole between two unruly rosemary bushes. Stella watches her aunt’s sin- ewy figure, lean and strong, push the tool into the red dirt caked hard from the sun. The newly upturned earth smells of worms and damp.

Zio Tino finally speaks. “When you marry, you marry the whole family, not just the man, capito? And if you have different views on how things should be…” His speech trails off and he gazes at the
distant hills.

“But marriage can sometimes transcend such differences,” Zia Angela says, standing and wiping her brow with her forearm.

Mariasole jogs over to her mother and yanks on her skirt. “If Alessio’s family is so important, maybe they could get us some more ration cards!”

Zio Tino’s brow wrinkles, but he says nothing more. Stella struggles to imagine Livia as a wife, living in the mayor’s house, no less. But there is much Stella doesn’t understand about this family and their complicated relations with the villagers who live at the bottom of the Villa Santa Lucia’s winding drive.

So, Stella carefully observes without commenting. She has spent the afternoon in the storage pantry off the dining room, where she counted pieces of Lady Harwell’s shiny, clanging silver services. In scratchy handwriting, Zia Angela recorded the number of serving spoons, of tea strainers, of pitchers and salt cellars and meat forks in a small, lined journal before wrapping everything in individual sheets of newspaper. Meanwhile, Stella’s uncles worked all afternoon to fit Sir Harwell’s finest bottles of wine and cherry brandy into hidden crevices of the dank wine cellar.

Suddenly, Mariasole darts behind one of the olive trees, flush- ing out her older sister by swatting her with a broken olive branch. Livia jogs sideways, holding onto the skirt of her flowered dress. Laughter rings through the air.

“Girls!” Zia Angela turns, her forehead etched with lines. “Help, please.”

Zio Tino hands the large shovel to Livia, who frowns but takes the tool from her father and begins digging a little farther away.

Zia Angela produces a tin box large enough to fit a pair of shoes.

She nestles it in the hole.

“What’s inside?” Mariasole asks.

“It’s the signora’s jewelry,” Livia says. “What she left behind.” “Don’t dare tell Giulia Rossi,” her aunt says, wagging a finger.

“Or any of your friends.”

“Won’t Signora Harwell be angry to find her jewelry in the dirt?” Mariasole asks.

“The Harwells may be enemies of the state for the moment,” Zio Tino says, “but they have been kind to us. When they come back, I want to make sure everything they treasure is still here. Even if it’s in the dirt.”

Mariasole presses her small hands into the soil. Somber silence overtakes the girls’ laughter as the sun dips below the horizon. Zia Angela pats the dirt flat and replants a small rosemary bush to mark the spot.

Excerpt. ©Laura Morelli. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: Two (2) winners will win one (1) copy of THE KEEPER OF LOST ART by Laura Morelli. Open to US only.

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Meet the Author:

Laura Morelli holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University and is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling historical novelist. Laura has taught college students in the U.S. and in Italy. She has covered art and authentic travel for TED-Ed, National Geographic Traveler, Italy Magazine, CNN Radio, and other media. Laura is the author of the popular Authentic Arts guidebook series that includes Made in Italy. Her historical novels, including The Night Portrait, The Gondola Maker, and The Last Masterpiece, bring the stories of art history to life.

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