Book of the Month–January 2015 |

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The sudden death of their father has made it necessary for three sisters to work in order to supplement their laundress mother’s income. Eldest sibling Antoinette finds a job as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir while younger sisters Marie and Charlotte are accepted into the famous ballet school of the Paris Opéra.

Marie is determined to become a successful dancer but private lessons are expensive. She supplements her meagre salary by working in a bakery and by modelling for the artist Edgar Degas. She becomes the model for his famous sculpture La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans/Little Dancer of Fourteen Years.

Antoinette meanwhile finds love with a dangerous young man and must choose between a life of labour and poverty or a more profitable existence in the criminal world.

Also available as:

Audiobook
eAudiobook
eBook
Large Print
Talking Book: CD format (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Read an excerpt

Acknowledgements and Awards
2013: GoodReads Choice Finalist (Historical Fiction)
NPR Best Books of 2013
2014: Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award

Book Reviews
The Globe and Mail
Quill and Quire
The Washington Post

About the Author
Cathy Marie Buchanan was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Her paren'ts Ruth and Al Buchanan were both teachers, although her mother had given up her career to stay home with her five children. In childhood, Buchanan avoided classes that required writing because she was a poor speller. She studied science at the University of Western Ontario, graduating with a BSc in Biochemistry. Buchanan also completed an MBA at Western. Her first book, The Day the Falls Stood Still, was published in 2009. She lives in Toronto where she is working on her third novel.

Author Interviews
Chatelaine
National Post

Read Alikes

If you liked The Painted Girls, you may also enjoy:

Also by Cathy Marie Buchanan:

The Day the Falls Stood Still
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book: CD format (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Other Fiction:

Dancing for Degas by Kathryn Wagner

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• Audiobook
• eBook
• Large Print

The Last Nude by Ellis Avery
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• Talking Book: CD format (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Leonardo’s Swans by Karen Essex
• Large Print

Non-Fiction

Dawn of the Belle Époque: Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau and their Friends by Mary McAuliffe