Johanna van Gogh-Bonger

Um, yes.

Vincent van Gogh became largely famous, uh, because one of his sister-in-law, because of his sister-in-law, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.

That's right, Bonger.

Without her efforts, after his death in 1890, there's a good chance his work would never have achieved the worldwide recognition it has today.

I did do a small group tour.

I was really hungry for the history of Jo Van Gogh and the relationship between her, her husband, and her brother-in-law.

But I learned that a guided museum tour is built for art lovers.

And here is where the hashtag I know because I go really, really exhibits itself.

I devoured it when it came out, as I do all of your books.

[laughs] Um, but it gave me, like, another lens on this whole conversation because part of what fascinated you was that Jo Van Gogh, like, and the enormous role that she played in building Vincent's legacy.

So she kind of helped shape the story through which the world came to understand him and his work, and I just wanted to know if researching her and all of that changed the way you think about the power of a story.

Like, not just to communicate value, but actually, like, create value.

100% it did.

So The Parisian Heist is partially about the untold, unsung story of Jo Van Gogh.

She is the woman who made Vincent Van Gogh famous.

She inherited hundreds of his paintings, which were worthless at the time, and single-handedly turned him into the rock star of the art world that we know today.

This dual timeline historical fiction novel follows a cast of bold female characters as they navigate the often male-dominated art world.

In the distant past, we follow Claire, who is a close friend and business partner of Jo Van Gogh, the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh's sister-in-law.

And true to history, Jo's mission is to make Vincent's work marketable after his death and lack of success as an artist during his lifetime.

And in the more recent timeline, which is set in 1996, we meet Emma, a struggling artist in her mid-20s who finds herself involved with one of the richest and most powerful art families in the world.

Well, I think it being set in a time, and I listened to an interview with Jo Piazza about this.

By the way, the fact that one of the characters is named Jo but it's pronounced Yo, and the author is named Jo, but then often in interviews will refer to Jo as Jo, will confuse me, but are we gonna go with the Dutch pronunciation throughout this episode?

I'm going with Jo Van Gogh.

I listened to the audio-