Glorious Ruins

Power, love, fame, and catastrophic greed collide in a sweeping historical novel about 1920s Paris based on the enduring friendship between Coco Chanel and world-famous muse Misia Sert.

In 1920s Paris, Misia Sert is a patron and a muse to the most revolutionary artists of the era. She is also profoundly in love with renowned muralist José María “Jojo” Sert, who prizes his wife’s iconoclastic vision and independence. But in Misia’s rarified circle, there is no greater kindred soul than designer Coco Chanel. Two women, two friends, for whom rules do not apply.

Then Misia finds herself challenged by the enigmatic Roussadana Mdivani, a Russian émigré and sculptress who solicits Jojo’s tutelage in service to a rising career of her own. It becomes evident Roussadana wants more from an enamored Jojo than that. Misia recognizes a disrupter when she sees one. Misia, with Coco as her confidante, is ready to fight to maintain her position—in marriage and in Paris—in the most unconventional ways. But the stakes are higher, and the fallout darker, than Misia and Coco can fathom.

Set during Paris’s scandalous années folles, Glorious Ruins is a sweeping novel about an indomitable friendship and the exquisite agonies of art and of love.