This novel is based on the life of Lee Miller, a Vogue model turned renowned photographer and her quest to forge a new identity as an artist. Filled with accurate details about Miller's life, the author begins in the more present day and then takes the reader back to when Miller made the decision to go to Paris in 1925. Miller made a connected with the famous Surrealist artist Man Ray, who at first just wants to take her photos. However, she is determined that he teach her about photography and eventually he does. As they work together in the darkroom, their professional and personal lives become intertwined, changing the course of Lee's life forever.
The author takes us past Miller's relationship with Man Ray into her work in the battlefields of World War II Europe, and also delves into how Miller discovered new photography techniques and also how she documented the liberation of concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Scharer doesn't shy away from gritty or unpleasant details, and I felt I really got a great feel for how Miller's life must have been. She's not always an easy person to understand or like, but the way she is depicted in this novel, she seems completely real. I had been familiar with Miller's work and some of her life story, so it was really interesting to read this novel. I felt the author did a great job of bringing this amazing woman's life into the spotlight (even if it wasn't always a beautiful or charmed life).
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