“A vividly detailed rendering of a real life caught in a maelstrom of 20th-century horror.”

“Inspired by artist Charlotte Salomon’s extraordinary work and life, Pamela Reitman’s novel is both deeply compassionate and unsparing. In her interweaving of fact and fiction, she honors Salomon's memory, while sustaining the urgency of historical and contemporary questions about daily life under threat of violence, about the sanctity of connection and about what sustains dignity in a state of emergency. In keeping with Salomon's legacy, Reitman's is a clarion reminder of why not turning away remains imperative under any and all circumstances.”

“The story of Charlotte Salomon is perhaps the most dramatic Holocaust narrative we know. Daughter of a prosperous German-Jewish family whose urbane exterior masked sexual abuse and suicide, Charlotte awoke to the truth of her legacy at the same moment the Nazis sought to wipe her out. In response she painted her life, clinging to art as the only possible way to remain alive and intact — which she did, until her short life ended at Auschwitz. Based on decades of research and reflection, Pamela Reitman brings Charlotte’s experience vividly alive in Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life. Sad though it is, this wonderful novel will give you hope.”

“The life of Charlotte Salomon, a gifted painter and writer, was cut short at Auschwitz when she was only 25. Miraculously her work survived and has been exhibited around the world, but she’s still not as well-known as she could be. Pamela Reitman’s wonderful novel will change that, I hope. Reitman imagines the years between January 1939, when young Charlotte fled from Berlin to the south of France, to September 1943. During that time Charlotte developed into the full-fledged woman and extraordinary artist whose work we now see on museum walls. I was moved and gripped by this story, which is a great read but also an important contribution to art and Holocaust history.”

“Pam Reitman conveys a true story of unspeakable evil and of great creativity and love in a novel's vivid, sinewy prose. Reitman inhabits Charlotte Salomon’s inner life and allows readers to experience how Charlotte conceives her art to save her soul. The artist produces a monumental narrative sequence of hundreds of paintings that depict her family’s nightmare of sexual abuse and suicides while fleeing the wider evil of Nazi terror. She insists on preserving her project, and gets it to safety, even though she knows she's likely to perish. She believes her art, the story she tells, will endure, and in a small way redeem her life – and she is right. Pam Reitman brings to life this harrowing, inspiring tale of death and defiance with a deep understanding of what such desperate horror, fear, and hope entail. Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life is a brilliant novel of compassion, resilience, and triumph in the face of evil.”

“Pamela Reitman's vividly imagined novel dares to explore beneath the surface of Charlotte Salomon's remarkable paintings, a body of work that managed to survive the Nazis even though the artist herself did not. While Reitman's fictional account is supported by careful and extensive research, she acknowledges her own artistic choices to embellish and interpret. This haunting book should help to bring more well-deserved attention to Salomon's important archive, and to remind a contemporary audience of innumerable losses beyond the frame.”

“Exceptional storytelling — an engrossing account of a young Jewish woman’s struggle with art and a dysfunctional family while fleeing Nazi pursuit. Charlotte’s fascinating struggle combines art history, the sociology of a dysfunctional family and the horrifying spread of Nazism across Europe. Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life compellingly personalizes Nazi Germany’s attempt to destroy “degenerate” art and eliminate its creators. A tragic family secret and determination to complete a lifetime collection while on the run result in a tense but satisfying novel.”

“Evocative and moving, this gorgeous novel is perfect for fans of historical and literary fiction. In Reitman's talented hands, Charlotte Salomon comes to life, immediately capturing our attention and hearts as she doggedly pursues her art in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With a firm grasp of the relevant history, Reitman immerses us in the time period with perfectly placed details and captivating drama. From page one I was swept along for the glorious ride, anxious to discover what destiny awaits Charlotte.”

“Reitman’s re-creation of Salomon’s life is composed of two opposing themes: art as a tool to interpret trauma, and the intractable tentacles of family secrets and shame that threaten to choke artistic expression. Blending fact with fiction, the novel is a touching synthesis that celebrates Charlotte’s fearless belief that only in art can one defy “the erasure of identity. “Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life is a powerful historical novel, at turns winsome and wrenching, about a gifted artist caught in the maelstrom of madness and war.”

“Coming of age at a time of death, Charlotte Salomon escapes Hitler’s Germany by joining her grandparents in the idyllic South of France. As Europe crumbles, the brilliant art student discovers love and also the terrible secret that evil lurks not only outside her refuge but within her own family. Pamela Reitman has created a gorgeous, haunting portrait of a willful young Jewish woman who paints to save her life, to remember everything in images and words, as Nazi jackboots approach.”

“When Charlotte Salomon’s husband asks her why she put her work (her art) above her own life, and the life of her unborn child, her answer was simple yet brilliant. ‘Art is more enduring.’ Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life is a work of art, a story of endurance, resistance and resilience. Not only is Charlotte Salomon a German-born Jewish woman forced into a fight for survival against the ever-increasing threat of Nazi Occupation in what she’d hoped would be the safety of the Cote D’Azur, but she’s haunted by a legacy of maternal suicides and the constant abuse of a deranged and abusive grandfather determined to undermine her very existence in every possible way. Yet, she doesn’t succumb – she fights with her paintbrush, her vision, and against all odds, her heart. Her art is her medium, the means by which Charlotte is able to live, even to thrive, accepting love and dreams of a future. Reitman has drawn Charlotte Saloman’s world, painted it actually, in all the vivid brushstrokes, colors, and intensity that one imagines Salomon brought to her own masterpieces. A beautiful tribute to a tremendous talent written by another gifted artist.”

“In gorgeous and at times breathtaking prose, the author takes us inside the mind and heart of a young German-Jewish painter coming of age during the Nazi era who used her talent to document her daily struggle to survive and evade capture. Although she did not survive, her paintings did. Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life, is author Pamela Reitman’s tribute to the artist’s grit and determination to make her life matter. In doing so, she has given the world a gift.”

“Charlotte Solomon couldn’t have found a better person than Pamela Reitman to write her life. Despite her personal suffering as a Jew during the Second World War, Charlotte told the story of her life and imagination through her art. Ms. Reitman has done the same, this time through her eloquent words and the imagination of a writer gifted in portraying Charlotte’s world as if through the eyes of a painter.”

“Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life, a novel by Pamela Reitman, is a Holocaust story, both literally and universally--in the sense that, at any moment, any of us could be waylaid and prevented from completing our life’s work. This is the story of a family history of abuse and suicide, and of how a toxic family history does not have to stop you from completing your life’s work. This is the story of art, how it preserves and redeems our lives. Painting in spare words, Pamela Reitman brings the murdered painter Charlotte Salomon back to life. The story breaks off before it is finished, just as it will for each of us, but finally, life is affirmed in the care and respect Ms. Reitman brings to her subject and in the simple beauty of the prose. I was left with a frightened awareness of the beauty of my own life and a rededication to its purpose.”

“Encounter an unforgettable woman in the most challenging circumstances imaginable. Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life tells an engrossing story of an artist navigating family trauma and illness, political turmoil, love, and passionate, committed, skilled talent. Pamela Reitman's imagining of Charlotte's inner life inspired me to look into her art. Read this book....you'll love it and want more.”

“Pamela Reitman’s Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life thoughtfully examines the intersection of personal loss and artistic expression. Through the lens of Charlotte Salomon’s experience, marked deeply by her mother’s suicide, the novel explores how grief and creativity intertwine. Reitman portrays Charlotte’s journey with sensitivity, highlighting her efforts to navigate a world shaped by both personal and historical challenges. The novel offers a nuanced look at an artist striving to reconcile past traumas through her work.”

“Intense and transporting. . . Pamela Reitman paints a vivid chronicle of a passionate and talented young woman filled with hope and despair, caught in a maelstrom of epic proportions. Well-researched and riveting, Charlotte Salomon, like her hundreds of paintings, will not be easily forgotten.”