HISTORIAN ALIETTE ARMEL EXPLORES THE LIFE
AND FRESCOES OF PIERO DELLA FRANCESCO
IN HER DEBUT NOVEL

Love, the Painter's Wife & the Queen of Sheba will appeal to fans of Girl with a Pearl Earring

"delicacy and finesse in a finely-wrought twin narrative."- Le Monde

"Full of poetic intuition…a tapestry of breath-taking beauty." - Le Temps, Switzerland

Two eras, two destinies, and the portraits of two women are entwined in the dazzling tour de force that is Love, The Painter's Wife & The Queen Of Sheba (Toby Press, July 15, 2004, hdcv., $19.95). Aliette Armel evokes the grandeur and renowned beauty of Queen Bilqis of Sheba, making the long and arduous journey across the desert with her entourage to her mythic encounter with King Solomon in Jerusalem, and the self-effacing grace of Silvia, wife of the Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesco. Although Piero has been honored with a papal invitation for a commission in Rome, Silvia fears that the intrigues of court will not only corrode his artistic talents, but eventually destroy their love as well.

To keep Piero by her side---like Scheherazade---Silvia starts to tell him the story of the queen of Sheba in daily installments. Slowly but surely, her words will inspire the images that Piero immortalized in the renowned frescoes he would later paint in their local church, the chapel of Arezzo. But as the great plague rages across Europe, Silvia finds herself fighting for far greater stakes than the chance to complete her narrative. Armel immerses her readers in parallel, enchanting worlds in this novel of beauty. Love, The Painter's Wife & The Queen Of Sheba has been translated by Alison Anderson.

Aliette Armel, a historian and critic, lives in Paris. In 2000, she traveled to Yemen to conduct research on the Queen of Sheba for this book. Originally published in France in 2002 as "Le Voyage de Bilqîs," it has received critical acclaim. This is her first novel; her other books include a biography of the novelist Marguerite Duras.