IN THOSE ARMS (2004) was critically acclaimed in the GUARDIAN LITTLE DANCER AGED FOURTEEN was selected as A HUFFPOST "Fall 2018 Books We Can't Wait to Read", A SPECTATOR USA "Books of the Year 2018, One of ArtNet News' "Surprising, Macabre, and Illuminating Books for Art Lovers to Read Over the Holidays", WORLD LITERATURE TODAY Editor's Pick UK edition front cover illustration from an original woodcut by Jessica Jane Charleston

She is famous throughout the world, but how many know her name? You can admire her figure in Washington, Paris, London, New York, Dresden or Copenhagen but where is her grave? She danced as a 'petit rat' at the Paris Opera. She was also a model, she posed for painters and sculptors - among them Edgar Degas. Taking us through the underbelly of the Belle Epoque, Laurens casts a light on those who have traditionally been overlooked in the study of art, and opens a space for essential questions. She paints a compelling portrait of Marie van Goethem and the world she inhabited, in the 1880s; a time when art unsettled the hypocrisy of society.