SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD 2025 'Strikingly accomplished . . . utterly compelling.' SUNDAY TIMES 'A masterpiece of biography.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A total joy to read.' SARAH BAKEWELL 'I feel like I've been waiting for this book my whole life.' SHEILA HETI A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN: THE GUARDIAN THE SPECTATOR THE TELEGRAPH THE INDEPENDENT ARTFORUM WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD NPR'S FRESH AIR From the celebrated author of Square Haunting comes a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells. 'Think of the Bible and Homer think of Shakespeare and think of me,' wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth century. In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso's portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway;