**Two impossible love stories are fatefully connected by one artistic
legacy in a stunning debut that leaps between the mysteries of
late-Renaissance Venice and the dramas of present-day America.
**
"Enchanting from the first page."--Sarah Jio, New York Times
bestselling author of All the Flowers in Paris
In the wake of her father's death, Rose Newlin finds solace in her work
as a book restorer. Then, one rainy Connecticut afternoon, a struggling
painter appears at her door. William Lomazzo brings with him a
sixteenth-century treatise on art, which Rose quickly identifies as a
palimpsest: a document written over a hidden diary that had purposely
been scraped away. Yet the restoration sparks an unforeseen challenge
when William--a married man--and Rose experience an instant, unspoken
attraction.
Five centuries earlier, Renaissance-era Venetians find themselves at the
mercy of an encroaching Ottoman fleet preparing for a bloody war.
Giovanni Lomazzo, a portrait artist grappling with tragedy, discovers
that his vision is fading with each passing day. Facing the possibility
of a completely dark world, Gio begins to document his every encounter,
including what may be his final artistic feat: a commission to paint the
enchanting courtesan of one of Venice's most powerful military
commanders. Soon, however, Gio finds himself enraptured by a magnificent
forbidden love.
Spellbound by Gio's revelations, Rose and William are soon forced to
confront the reality of their own mystifying connection.
A richly detailed page-turner shadowed by one of history's darkest
times, The Lost Diary of Venice weaves a heartbreakingly vivid
portrait of two vastly different worlds--and two tales of entrancing,
unrelenting love.
