SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025

A RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME IN APRIL

'The Artist is a lush, impressive debut; the writing is rich and sensuous, especially in descriptions of food, the landscape and the act of creation. Lucy Steeds is one to watch' The Times

'Dextrous and powerful . . . a hugely accomplished portrait of ambition and self-fulfilment' Guardian

'The year's most lauded debu...

An intense summer of love, lies and the promise of freedom, set in Provence in 1920.

All Joseph wants is to be let into Tartuffe's world. All Ettie wants is to escape it.

The year is 1920. The place is a remote farmhouse in Provence, home to the reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe and his niece, Ettie. Into this strange, silent house walks Joseph: a young journalist hoping to write an article about Tartuffe. But the more he entangles himself in the peculiar household, the more Joseph's curiosity grows . . .

Ettie cooks and cleans for her uncle. She prepares h...