I just can’t stop reading good books recently. It’s some sort of lucky streak…that will most likely end now that I’ve pointed it out. Most recently, this weekend I finished The Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant.
This book reminded me a bit of The Floating Book. I love reading historical fiction set in Italy. Dunant sets The Birth of Venus in Florence during the Renaissance. Art is everywhere in this novel, and the main character’s love for the art surrounding her sucks the reader into loving it too. The Birth of Venus is to art as The Floating Book is to literature. We follow Alessandra Cecchi into a loveless (but companionable) marriage, and that storyline is good, but even better is the storyline around her. This female character is not so much concerned with the domestic life around her as she is the political changes in Florence. As the Medici family is ousted from power by a crazed and fanatical monk and his brainwashed followers, Alessandra’s love of art and passion for painting is forced to go further underground. Her passion and curiosity grow despite the fact that women are excluded more and more from public life.
This was the first Sarah Dunant book I’ve read. It seems she’s also a mystery writer, and while mystery novels are not usually at the top of my list, I definitely plan to look for her other works.