''A total joy to read.'' SARAH BAKEWELL
''Thrillingly intelligent and original . . . A breakthrough in biographical form.'' EDMUND GORDON
''A discerning literary biography and a page-turning whodunit.'' LISA APPIGNANESI
''I feel like I''ve been waiting for this book my whole life.'' SHEILA HETI
From the celebrated author of Square Haunting comes a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells.
-Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,- wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth century.
In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso-s portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway; racing through the French countryside with her
