Lisa Barr’s latest novel, “Woman on Fire,” was just released on March 1, and it has already drawn extensive critical acclaim. Even more exciting for the Deerfield author is the news that actor Sharon Stone is going to produce and star in the film version.
“Woman on Fire,” published by Harper Paperbacks, revolves around a young journalist named Jules Roth who is given the challenging and dangerous assignment of locating a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier. Jules soon becomes embroiled in a major international art scandal.
Barr spoke about what inspired this work.
“I’ve been a journalist for almost 28 years,” Barr said. “I was a reporter in the Middle East and all kinds of places. Usually when I’m working on fiction or I’m writing something creatively, it’s been inspired by a news event. I was in the middle of working on another book, ‘The Unbreakables,’ when I saw a news story called ‘The Munich Art Hoard.'”
It told of the discovery in 2013, in an elderly man’s rundown apartment in Munich, of 1,500 masterpieces. It included paintings by such artists as Picasso, Chagall, and Matisse.
“It turns out that this old man was the son of Hitler’s art thief, Hildebrand Gurlitt,” Barr related. “I thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great place to launch a novel?'”
That’s where “Woman on Fire” begins.
“Without giving away any spoilers, a ruthless art dealer steals from the robber,” Barr revealed.
She wrote the book during the COVID-19 shutdown period.
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“I wanted to go back to the place of a young journalist, who I was back in my old days — before I had kids,” Barr said. “I was free and I was taking on any assignment. I was a bit fearless but a little bit too idealistic.”
The painting that the young journalist is after, a work called “Woman on Fire,” may or may not be in “The Munich Art Hoard.”
“It was really important to me on the historical end of it that I showcased the upwards of 600,000 artworks that were confiscated, stolen, looted, destroyed by the Nazis,” Barr explained. “I use this one painting to kind of represent what happened during the war and how it affected one family and all these layers of people around it to showcase the bigger picture.”
The book presents a struggle between two strong woman — the young journalist and an unscrupulous art dealer, “each going after the painting for her own reasons,” Barr said.
Barr’s first book, “Fugitive Colors,” also deals with stolen art but from the perspective of the artist. That book won the IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards) gold medal for Best Literary Fiction 2014 as well as first prize at the Hollywood Film Festival.
Sharon Stone became interested in “Woman on Fire” after Barr sent the actor an advance copy to read.
“I had just read her memoir, ‘The Beauty of Living Twice,’ and I was so blown away by it,” Barr said. “I thought, ‘This woman is like the original ‘Woman on Fire.’ She’s an activist, and she loves the arts, and she’s involved with the Holocaust Museum. I thought it was going to be a great connection.”
It turns out that it was.
Three week after sending Stone “Woman on Fire,” Barr received a text message from the actor telling her that she loved the book.
“From there it all came together,” Barr said.
Barr has impressive journalistic credentials having served as an editor for The Jerusalem Post, managing editor of Today’s Chicago Woman, managing editor of Moment magazine, and an editor/reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Currently she is writing full-time and collecting accolades for “Women on Fire.”
She reported it has been named a USA Today Bestseller, “Good Morning America” Pick for March, and Barnes and Noble Book of the Month Fiction Pick for March.
“I’ve had other books. They’ve done well but there was something about this book,” Barr declared. “I feel like I gave it all I had inside me. I’m so honored that people are reading this story and connecting to it and passing it on.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.