Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life is historical fiction inspired by the life and work of a young German-Jewish art student at The Berlin Fine Arts Academy. In 1938 she was robbed of her First-Place contest prize because she was a Jew. Following that humiliation, her enrollment was annulled. After Kristallnacht, she was sent from Berlin into exile with her grandparents on the Côte d’Azur, where she embarked on the making of her masterpiece, “Life? Or Theater?” She produces over 1000 paintings telling the story of a coming-of-age during Hitler’s rise to power and a coming-to-terms with a legacy of familial suicide, including her own mother. Charlotte will not be deterred from completing her masterpiece. Then she risks her life to make sure it will endure beyond her short life before she is captured by the Nazis.

This is a story about the courage to create under dire circumstances and the power of art to transform trauma.

Trade Paper, 392 pages, $22