WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST - REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
- NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The author of award-winning
Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in
this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess
Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.
"I could not stop reading this incredible true story." --Reese
Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club Pick)
"O'Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this
story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her
station...You may know the history, and you may think you know what's
coming, but don't be so sure." --The Washington Post
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is
comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its
treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her
own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her
wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust
unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in
marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an
unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not
universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband
himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be
before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists
and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his
formidable sisters seem to tremble?
As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to
preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly
clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who
will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all
of her rank and nobility, the new duchess's future hangs entirely in the
balance.
Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the
Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell turns her talents to
Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young
woman's battle for her very survival.
