The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Suspensefully sweeping from London in the sixties to 1930s rural Spain; The Muse is an unforgettable novel about art and aspiration; love and obsession - a masterpiece from Jessie Burton; the million-copy bestselling author of The Miniaturist. 'Those who loved The Miniaturist will find here all the cliffhangers; twists and heart-stopping revelations they expected; and in two evocative settings' - Daily Telegraph A picture hides a thousand words . . . On a hot July day in 1967; Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London; knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad; she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence; and unlocks a potential she didn't know she had; she remains a mystery - no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery. The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in southern Spain; where Olive Schloss; the daughter of a renowned art dealer; is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa; who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family; with explosive and devastating consequences . . . 'It takes all the promise of The Miniaturist - the complex female characters; an entrancing mystery; a lush and evocative sense of place - and executes it with wit and style' - Elle