In Costalegre, Europe is on the brink of the second world war and 14 year old Lara has been uprooted by her wealthy mother to Mexico. A patron of the arts, her mother has brought a bevy of artists and writers to live with them in order to protect them from the war. (The book is loosely based on Peggy Guggenheim and her daughter.) Costalegre is Lara's diary while in Mexico, and chronicles her isolation, loneliness, and need to be seen - both by the world and especially by her absent mother. This book is dreamy and evocative - the jungle is lush and dangerous, the artists unpredictable and sometimes cruel. Maum writes beautifully, and Lara felt like a very real teenager from the era. Recommended!

The narrator of this novel is a fifteen year old girl living in rural 1940's Mexico where her wealthy mother has gathered. a coterie of European surrealist artists to keep them out of Hitler's hands. Leonora Callaway is an American art collector who uses her influence to save artists and tote them to a remote village to keep them safe. She brings daughter Lara as well, even though the girl would much rather be with her father and brother, going to school.

As readers, we should be glad Lara did get hauled along on this trip. Her diary is tart, well-observed, and funny. Nearly all the rescued artists are awful, as is her mother. They're stressed-out, drunk, nasty, scared by a lack of information coming from Europe and dwindling art supplies. Leonora tried to get the Louvre to store her extraordinary modern art collection before leaving Paris. The museum sneered at her and called the collection trash, so now the result of her audacious collecting is on a ship heading to New York, dodging submarines and bombs, at least everyone hopes. The terror of losing this work shimmers across Costalegre.

Lara is a wonderful narrator, and the story is loosely based on Peggy Guggenheim and her rocky relationship with her daughter Pegeen. Peggy was responsible for funding efforts to save at-risk artists during the war, and she did ship her extraordinary art collection to New York after the Louvre refused to hide it. Besides that? Who can say.

Now come the treat of reading Courtney Maum's other novels. She is a fine writer and "Costalegre" is thoughtful and a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading her existing work and watching for her in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader