After talking her way into a job with Dan Mansfield, the leading investigative reporter in Chicago, rising young journalist Jules Roth is given an unusual--and very secret--assignment. Dan needs her to locate a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier: legendary Expressionist artist Ernst Engel's most famous work, Woman on Fire. World-renowned shoe designer Ellis Baum wants this portrait of a beautiful, mysterious woman for deeply personal reasons, and has enlisted Dan's help to find it. But Jules doesn't have much time; the famous designer is dying.

Meanwhile, in Europe, provocative and powerful Margaux de Laurent also searches for the painting. Heir to her art collector family's millions, Margaux is a cunning gallerist who gets everything she wants. The only thing standing in her way is Jules. Yet the passionate and determined Jules has unexpected resources of her own, including Adam Baum, Ellis's grandson. A recovering addict and brilliant artist in his own right, Adam was once in Margaux's clutches. He knows how ruthless she is, and he'll do anything to help Jules locate the painting before Margaux gets to it first.

A thrilling tale of secrets, love, and sacrifice that illuminates the destructive cruelty of war and greed and the triumphant power of beauty and love, Woman on Fire tells the story of a remarkable woman and an exquisite work of art that burns bright, moving through hands, hearts, and history. (Harper)

Malina Saval is a features editor at Variety covering the film, TV and music beats. Her piece on the representation of autism in television garnered a 2018 Los Angeles Press Club Award for best magazine commentary, and most recently, her feature-length profile on the actor Nick Nolte earned a second place National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. She’s also the author of “The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens,” a non-fiction account of male adolescence published by Basic Books in 2010. Additionally, she’s traveled to film fests around the world moderating panel discussions on behalf of Variety and has appeared as a guest on NPR, PBS, CBS Radio and several other news outlets. She’s currently at work adapting her investigative research piece published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, “Stolen Children, Erased Children: The Story Behind Slovakia’s Parental Kidnapping Crisis” as a documentary. She graduated from Cornell University with B.A. in English and USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Screenwriting.

Vroman’s Live presents Lisa Barr, in conversation with Malina Saval, discussing Woman on Fire