Tracy Chevalier
While I have enjoyed Tracy Chevalier’s other books, I found this one disappointing. The plot and characters were dull and flat and I found that I wasn’t even interested in how the book ended. This historical fiction takes place in Paris in the 15th century. An artist, Nicolas des Innocents, is commissioned by Jean Le Viste, a wealthy Parisian, to create several large tapestries, which are to depict a lady and a unicorn. It would seem that Chevalier is pulling from “The Hunt of the Unicorn” tapestries, which do exist, and are on display at the Met. After Nicolas creates the drawings for the tapestries, he is involved in several romances, one with the weaver’s blind daughter, one with the unattainable Claude, Jean Le Viste’s daughter, and several in between. Despite so many romances, this novel fell short, even though it’s about a topic that I find mysterious and very interesting.