'In incandescent prose, Whitney Scharer has created an unforgettable heroine discovering her passion, her independence, and her art-and what she must sacrifice to have them. This is a powerful, sensual and gripping portrait of the forging of an artist's soul.' - Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles 'Whitney Scharer's storytelling is utterly immersive and gorgeous in its details, transporting you into Lee Miller's life, and her struggles to be taken seriously in a man's world. This novel sparks on every page.' - Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin Whitney Scharer is a stunning new discovery. 'Rapturous and razor sharp all at once, The Age of Light fearlessly unzips anything we might know of Lee Miller as model and muse and recasts her as artist, free thinker and architect of a singular and unapologetic life. The price for Lee is steep, but it makes for irresistible reading. Scharer's intoxicating first novel.bring a stunning chiaroscuro effect to the saga of a woman transforming herself into an artist.' - Booklist This brilliant portrayal of the complicated couple features a page-turning story and thrillingly depicts the artistic process.' - Publishers Weekly Told in interweaving timelines, this sensuous, richly detailed novel brings Lee Miller-a brilliant and pioneering artist-out of the shadows of a man's legacy and into the light. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it's possible to reconcile romantic desire with artistic ambition - and what she will have to sacrifice to do so. Lee's journey takes us from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from discovering radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents.

But Man Ray turns out to be an egotistical, charismatic force, and as they work together in the darkroom, their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined, changing the course of Lee's life forever. Though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows.

'I'd rather take a photograph than be one,' she declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray. She went to Paris to start over, to make art instead of being made into it.Ī captivating debut novel by Whitney Scharer, The Age of Light tells the story of Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, and her search to forge a new identity as an artist after a life spent as a muse.

The age of light by whitney scharer