| Description |
554 pages ; 24 cm |
|
regular print |
| Summary |
Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from court by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. She is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of Bitter Greens. After Margherita's father steals a handful of greens - parsley, wintercress and rapunzel - from the walled garden of the courtesan, Selena Leonelli, they give up their daughter to save him from having both hands cut off. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1513 and still inspiring him at the time of his death, sixty-one years later. Called La Strega Bella, Selena is at the centre of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition. Locked away in a tower, growing to womanhood, Margherita sings in the hope someone will hear her. One day, a young man does. Three women, three lives, three stories, braided together to create a compelling story of desire, obsession, black magic, and the redemptive power of love |
| Analysis |
Australian |
| Notes |
National Library's N copy is signed by the author. ANL |
| Subject |
Australian fiction -- 21st century.
|
|
Desire -- Fiction.
|
|
Historical fiction, European.
|
|
Magic -- Fiction.
|
|
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction.
|
|
Scandals -- Fiction.
|
| Genre/Form |
Historical fiction.
|
|
Romance fiction.
|
|
Novels.
|
| ISBN |
9781741668452 (paperback) |
|
