I Am You, Victoria Redel
I Am You, Victoria Redel
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
Club: $11.00

I Am You

Author: Victoria Redel

Narrator: Katharine Lee McEwan

Unabridged: 10 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/30/2025

Synopsis

This “lush, sexy, absorbing novel” of historical fiction “brings to life two artists who are inextricably linked in passion and competition” (Melissa Febos, bestselling author of Girlhood)

A “captivating” lesbian romance set in the “wonderfully atmospheric” art world of 1600s Amsterdam (Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit)

At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world.

While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry—and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.

A mesmerizing historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.

“A stunning accomplishment.” —Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Day and The Hours

“[A] transporting epic of making art and love.” —Booklist

About The Author

Victoria Redel has written four books of poetry, most recently Paradise; her last novel, Before Everything, was published in 2017. Her short stories, poetry and essays have appeared in Granta, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Bomb, One Story, Salmagundi, O, and NOON among many others. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center. She is a professor in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Hades on September 09, 2025

Thank you so much Netgalley and Zando/SJP lit for an ARC of this book !! Being a bisexual  wanna be artist myself, this book caught my eye right off the bat, along with the beautiful cover..Other than the fact the FMC got under my skin at times, this was a pure work of art. And honestly, her getting......more

Goodreads review by Kate on February 26, 2026

I Am You is a historical fiction novel that pieces together the small amount known about Maria von Oosterwijck and her maid, Gerta Pieters. Maria was a renowned female still life artist who worked in Amsterdam in the mid 1600s. She was one of a small number of successful female artists at the time o......more

Goodreads review by Robin on September 04, 2025

An utterly original work of historical fiction. I Am You documents Amsterdam in the golden age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, focusing on a woman painter with a servant who becomes her assistant, then her partner, and lover. When Gerta is 7 her family cuts her hair, dresses her as a boy called Pieter, an......more

Goodreads review by Lady Olenna on December 14, 2025

5 Stars I Am You by Victoria Redel is a masterpiece. Period. As the author acknowledges that poetic license may have been employed in depicting the life events of Dutch artist Maria van Oosterwijck, ultimately, it does not matter within the broader scope of the novel, as Redel ensures that her interp......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on August 26, 2025

I Am You is a passionately heartbreaking, complex love story set in the 1600's in which two women's lives one whose social status is higher, evolve and revolve around each other. Their need to be together prevails on so many different levels and yet they sometimes appear to be like oil and water, a......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List