The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard by Natasha Lester

Title: The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard

Author: Natasha Lester

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Published: 27^th September 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 450

Price: $32.99

Synopsis: History said she was just a man’s muse. History was wrong. The exquisite new novel from bestselling author Natasha Lester.

In November 1973, a fashion legend vanished, leaving behind only a white silk dress and the question: what really happened to Astrid Bricard?

Paris, 1917: Parentless sixteen-year-old Mizza Bricard makes a vow: to be remembered on her own terms. This promise drives her and her designs through the most exclusive couture houses in France until, finally, a legend is created – one that will endure for generations to come, but not the one she wanted.

New York, 1970: Designer Astrid Bricard arrives in bohemian Chelsea ready to change the fashion world. And she does – but cast in the role of muse to her lover, Hawk Jones. Just as Astrid’s star is finally poised to ascend in its own right, she mysteriously disappears, leaving her family in tatters and perpetuating the infamous Bricard family myth.

French Countryside, Present Day: Blythe Bricard is the daughter of fashion’s most infamous 70s power couple, but she turned her back on that world, and her passion for it, years ago. Fate, however, has other plans, and in a chateau over a whirlwind couple of weeks, Blythe will discover there is more to her iconic mother and grandmother – and herself – than she ever knew.

These three generations now have one chance to prove themselves. Can the women of the Bricard fashion dynasty finally rewrite their history?

~*~

In 1970, the story of Astrid Bricard, daughter of Mizza, and Hawk Jones making their mark on the fashion world. Astrid is working in the shadow of her mother, who spent her life after the age of sixteen in couture houses in France throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s and World War II – and the formation of a legend that will follow generations of her family around. In 2021, Blythe Bricard, Astrid and Hawk’s daughter is grappling with her family’s reputation and being in the French countryside with her ex-husband and his family for his mother’s birthday. Blythe has spent her life running from her heritage and those who want to see her as the daughter of a muse and nothing more – just a woman’s name attached to a man. Yet fate has other ideas as her family legend and heritage are thrust back into Blythe’s orbit over the two weeks and her life will change forever.

Natasha Lester’s later novel takes us into a post-war world – a world where women in many cases are still second fiddle to a man – the muse rather than the designer, the one who has ruined everything, or they’re entering worlds where men have dominated and even in 2012, when Blythe’s story takes place, there are times it seems revolutionary that she would dare to make it on her own without the backing of a male investor. The story plays on this idea, where women like Mizza, Astrid, and Blythe Bricard are judged against what they have done, against what the men in their lives do, and their relationships as muses rather than designers in the fashion world. They are the women who fight for their opportunities, who refuse to let the reputation of a man dictate what they do, and who they are, and who make sacrifices for family, career, and reputation. They are the women in one family whose generational trauma has affected how they see themselves and how they act – from Mizza’s teen years and abandonment by her parents, to Astrid growing up away from her famous mother, and Blythe spending her childhood in the shadow of Astrid’s disappearance and reputation, trying to repair the trauma as she navigates motherhood and divorce, wholly dedicated to her children and making them her priority.

This departure from Natasha’s usual setting – the 1940s is the main difference here. Fashion is still important, family is still important, and France is still important, though the novel takes place between France and New York, but predominantly in France. The world that Natasha has created is exquisite and complex, with layers of history, mystery, family heritage and clashes, and the many different kinds of love within a family that play into everything people do in their lives. I am always a fan of Natasha’s books, and I was captured by Astrid’s story – I think I read half the book in one sitting because I wanted to find out what happened, and by going in and out of each woman’s life, Natasha kept me hanging out to find what happened across the three different timelines that were related and intertwined. Natasha always has a romantic story in some way – often at least one that is established, or that happens as a result of the events of the book and she allows everything to be given equal standing in the novel, ensuring that each strand is given the attention it needs and deserves, resulting in a complex and intriguing story about the fashion world and what it has meant for women over the generations – about one hundred years in this book from Mizza to Astrid to Blythe and the power of women finding their place and standing their ground.

Natasha has captured the sense that women’s stories need to be told, that the rumours that media can perpetuate and push as truth need to be faced head on. There is always more to the story, and ignoring the human side is detrimental – we lose something without giving ourselves a chance to understand all the facts.  Natasha is showing what rumours and assumptions can do, how they can affect people related to the person reported on, and the implications of this and how it can dictate the way other people see you and treat you. She is trying to undo this in a way, and I think she has done a great job, and I hope other people enjoy this book as well.