June sees the Translations Book Club travel to ‘a Buenos Aires of canvases, trap doors and dreams’ as we take a look at María Gainza’s Portrait of an Unknown Lady (trans. Thomas Bunstead).

In the Buenos Aires art world, a master forger has achieved legendary status. Rumored to be a woman, she specializes in canvases by the painter Mariette Lydis, a portraitist of Argentinean high society. But who is this absurdly gifted creator of counterfeits? What motivates her? And what is her link to the community of artists who congregate, night after night, in a strange establishment called the Hotel Melancólico?
 
On the trail of this mysterious forger is our narrator, an art critic and auction house employee through whose hands counterfeit works have passed. As she begins to take on the role of art-world detective, adopting her own methods of deception and manipulation, she warns us “not to proceed in expectation of names, numbers or dates . . . My techniques are those of the impressionist.”
 
Driven by obsession and full of subtle surprise, Portrait of an Unknown Lady is a highly seductive and enveloping meditation on what we mean by “authenticity” in art, and a captivating exploration of the gap between what is lived and what is told.

New members are most welcome but spaces are limited. The event link below will be activated from 9am on Wednesday 18 May and spaces will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Feel free to send us an email if you have any questions.