Winner of the 2000 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award!
Tracy Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richlyimagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius...even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
"Chevalier brings the real artist Vermeer and a fictional muse to life in a jewel
of a novel." —Time
"A vibrant, sumptuous novel... triumphant... a beautifully written tale that
mirrors the elegance of the painting that inspired it." —The Wall Street Journal
"Chevalier has so vividly imagined the life of the painter and his subject."
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"[Chevalier] creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a
particular moment, it transcends its time and place." —The New Yorker
"Marvelously evocative." —The New York Times
"Lustrous." —Entertainment Weekly
