Girl with a pearl earring ( İncili Küpeli Kız) Tracy Chevalier

 I think this book is in Literary catogarisation...
A fragile and innocent story of a maid and her artist master in 17th century Netherlands. The Baroque setting of the book shifted me to the era.. Here is an editorial review;

A fictional account of how the Dutch artist Vermeer painted his masterpiece. In this splendid novel, the girl in the painting is Griet, the 16-year-old servant of the Vermeer household. The relationship between her and Vermeer is elusive. Is she more than a model? Is she merely an assistant? Is the artist's interest exaggerated in her eyes? The details found in this book bring 17th-century Holland to life. Everyday chores are described so completely that readers will feel Griet's raw, chapped hands and smell the blood-soaked sawdust of the butcher's stall. They will never view a Dutch painting again without remembering how bone, white lead, and other materials from the apothecary shop were ground, and then mixed with linseed oil to produce the rich colors. YAs will also find out how a maid from the lower class, whose only claim to pearls would be to steal them, becomes the owner of the earrings.

-Sheila Barry, Chantilly Regional Library, VA