Rembrandt's Whore by Sylvie Matton, trans Tamsin Black

Just as the recent Vermeer vogue bred a spin-off success in fiction (by Tracy Chevalier), so French novelist Sylvie Matton deserves some reflected glory for this lyrical but well-researched "memoir" of Rembrandt's servant-cum-mistress, Hendrickje Stoffels. She convincingly recreates the girl who moved from maid to muse and mother, shocking puritanical Amsterdam and inspiring some of the tenderest depictions of solid flesh and soaring spirit in art.