Award Winning Author Stephen Maitland-Lewis

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview award winning author Stephen Maitland-Lewis. He is the author of BOTTICELLI’S BASTARD (Glyd-Evans Press/August 11, 2014). It is the new mystery novel from , award winning author Stephen Maitland-Lewis, which deals with the bizarre relationship between a fine art restorer, Giovanni Fabrizzi, and an old master portrait by an unidentified artist of the 16th Century.  Obsessed to learn the truth of the painting’s origin, Giovanni becomes increasingly convinced the painting could be the work of one of history’s great artists – Botticelli - which if true, would catapult its value. In learning the painting’s past, Giovanni believes the portrait was stolen during the greatest art heist in history – the Nazi plunder of European artwork. As Giovanni persists in his quest of discovery, he exposes far more truth than he ever wanted to know.

There is a strong element of magical realism that runs throughout the novel, which has received much advance praise from such notables as: Sir Ronald Harwood, Oscar winning writer of THE PIANIST;  Arnold Kopelson, Academy Award winning producer;  Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; J. Patrice Marandel, Chief Curator of European Paintings & Sculpture, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and authors M.J. Rose, Gully Wells and Stephen Jay Schwartz.

Stephen’s last novel, AMBITION, received numerous accolades and was a Finalist in the 2013 USA Best Book Awards and the 2014 International Book Awards. AMBITION also garnered the 2013 Rebecca Reads Reader’s Choice Award for Best General Fiction. Stephen’s earlier book, EMERALDS NEVER FADE, won the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Historical Fiction and the 2011 Written Arts Award for Best Fiction.