Immortali

Described by the author as a Renaissance soap opera, Immortali is a late sixteenth-century feast of pleasure and pain, exploring mysticism and heresy, tensions and jealousies, illusion and reality, smouldering passion, and murderous intrigue in Tuscany and Venice. This is an emotionally familiar debut novel, strangely exotic and heady as a Venetian perfume. Colourful actors with familiar names and the evil machinations of a masked villain drive the relentless action. The book brims with vivid scenes and an expert knowledge of the period, yet it is also a novel for today, a coming-of-age in an exciting era in which a young girl s longing for love and fame is the timeless theme. Made pregnant by rape and forced to flee her home, spoiled little rich girl, Giulia, finds life with the travelling actors harsh. But perhaps there s more to them than she realized. Can the charismatic Arlecchino, whom she adores in spite of his brutal treatment of her, really walk on air and step from one world to another? In pursuit of her dream to become the Immortali s leading lady, Giulia is drawn into the darkest supernatural peril. The flames of the Inquisition are stoked in readiness and only a miracle can save her.