Artemisia Gentileschi was a famous painter in Rome in the 1600's. Motherless, at age 12, she had to chose a life in the convent or to labor for her father grinding pigment for his paints. She also painted in her father's studio and by the time she was seventeen her talent was obvious. A woman in a world where men viewed women as commodities, Artemisia soon realized nothing was her own not her art, her virtue, or her life. She was at the mercy of the cruel men around her.
This novel-in-verse depicts her struggles to keep her spirit from being consumed by those that used her. I love a book that prompts me to research further and eager to find out more about the subject. This is one of those books.