Introduction

France, 1940. Nazi forces march towards Paris. Lili Rosenswig's wealthy and eccentric family is ensconced in their country chateau with their sumptuous collection of arts and antiques. The beloved Matisse portrait of Lili's mother has been brought from their Paris salon for safety. It is the day before young lovers Lili and Paul are to be married that they are forced to flee and their fortunes change irrevocably. Lili and her family escape but Paul must stay behind to defend his country.

In their struggle to adapt to changing circumstances in an unpredictable world, all are pushed to reinvent themselves. When top Nazi Herman Goring loots their Matisse portrait, their story is intertwined with the fate of the painting. PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN IN WHITE is a moving family saga, an obsessive search for lost love and lost art and how far we will go to survive.

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Excerpt

France, June 1940
Tomorrow was to have been her wedding day.?They allowed themselves just the few hours before nightfall to pack—a single suitcase for each of them, and only what they could easily carry. Alone in the waning light of the bedroom, Lili stopped to examine the small heap on her bed: extra socks, a warm jacket, a bar of scented soap, a hairbrush. How could this insignificant pile sustain her? She added all of it to the belongings in the worn leather valise and pushed down hard to make more space. Then she turned to the bedside table, where a clock stood alongside a family photograph and two blue sketchbooks lay open next to an empty box of artists’ pastels. The radiant colors spread across the table in luxurious disarray. In an anguished motion, she gathered up the pastels and placed them back into their dark wooden box and closed the sketchbooks. She arranged these final items carefully on top of the pile, lowered the lid of the valise over everything, and, with a final, devastating snap, shut the bag. Her dreams went dark. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1- Lili's story is one of love, loss and reinvention. She begins life as a creative girl in a privileged family but arrives in the United States a pregnant, unmarried refugee. By the end she is again a creative woman living a privileged life, and is ultimately successful in reconciling her past with her present.To what extent does her ability to reinvent herself spring from her will to survive or from her learning to internalize life's challenges, or is she simply a lucky victim of circumstance?

2-Lili and Max have an unconventional beginning to their marriage. In Lili's predicament, would you have made the same choices she did? How did her marriage to Max evolve over their life together? How was it impacted by the birth of Mimi?

3-Paul was a young man of high principles. What aspects of Paul's character influenced his choices from the day he was separated from Lili? He waited a long time to reunite with Lili and the Rosenswigs and to become involved in a relationship. Why? Could he have chosen to act differently? In the end, do you think he regretted his choices?

4-Communication in wartime 1940 had none of the advantages of today's social media. What would you have done to track Lili if you were Paul in WW2 France?

5-Claude Bessett's actions seem reprehensible to us. How did he reconcile survival in dangerous times with a personal morality? Given his circumstances, what decisions would you have made?

6-Henri and his father Maurice had a difficult relationship, fraught with their many differences. How did the balance of power between them change with their circumstances? How did Henri try to atone to his father for bringing them to America, and do you think he succeeded?

7-Lili's parents, Sonia and Maurice, seemed to have a successful marriage. What were the differences in what each expected from life? How were their expectations challenged, and how did they hold up to these challenges? Which qualities did each pass on to Lili and Henri?

8- Herman Goring and the Assoulines were both collectors of art. How did the motivation for their amassing great collections reflect differences in their core moral values?

9-Significant objects play meaningful roles in this story. What values and emotions are attached to the Matisse portrait, the family photograph, the emerald ring, the snuff box and the family china?

10) The book spans a time period of approximately 40 years, on two continents. Consider Lili's journey to find her place in a society with changing expectations for women. As a man, did Henri face changing expectations? Did he as a gay man?

Weblinks

»	Follow the author on Facebook
»	About the author
»	Author interview
»	Book review from Rose city reader
»	Book Review from American Girls Art Club in Paris

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