Girl Braiding Her Hair

Her close friends included Van Gogh, Degas, and Renoir. As a sought-after model, Paris celebrated her - until she picked up the brush herself, at a time when art schools refused to accept female students. "I had a hard time putting the book down to go to sleep at night." Kaela Mays By the time Suzanne Valadon--a bastard from the tenements--was 15 years- old, she's been a horse walker, a milliner's assistant, a funeral wreath maker, and a circus acrobat, but that was just the beginning of her adventures. Here is her story, along with Ellie's, a modern woman a century later, at a crossroads of her life, who pulls Suzanne from the shadows of the past into the light. "The absolute best book of the year." Denise McDonald