WOMAN IN BRONZE by Antanas Sileika

Set in Lithuania pre-WWI and then in Paris of the 1920s, the novel traces the progress of a young sculptor who wants to make his way among the talent in Montparnasse. It is an accurate portrayal of a spare artist's life and beautifully depicts the process of creating a bronze. You meet real people from that time including the fantastic Josephine Baker and the hugely talented Jacques Lipschitz (who had a solo show in Toronto at the AGO in 1989).