June 2026 Book Club

June 2026 Lisette’s List by Susan Vreeland

In this story we follow the life of Lisette, a young Parisian woman who is forced to
relocate to a small Provence village when her husband’s only living relative, an old
grandfather who reared him, writes to tell them he is failing and needs Andre to care for
him. This is a blow to Lisette who had been about to follow her passion for art by getting
a job in a gallery. She consoles herself with the knowledge that Pascal owns seven

paintings by famous artists since he used to work in the ochre mines of his town, later
selling the pigments produced by the ochres, which put him in touch with artists. This
initial part of the book, concentrates on painting.

Then WW2 comes along Andre goes off to fight, hides the paintings before he goes
and, does not tell his wife where they are hidden. After the war Lisette goes looking for
the paintings and has some unfortunate losses. She and Andrè lived an inspiring love
story, and Lisette was just simply a good soul (she was raised by a nun after all).