Synopses & Reviews
I was an unwilling nun, bundled into the convent by a family that had briefly lost its head . . .
The nuns caught me early by my sweet tooth, hanging sugared almonds, balsamic lozenges, and candied fruit in the humid swoop of the orchard branches whenever we went . . .
I married Christ in a delirium spun of sweetened wine. I was only bitter later, when I saw little girls dreambound in the smell of almonds and burnt sugar in the orchard. For by then of course I knew full well . . . that God did not make such trees.
So begins The Remedy, a lush and riveting new work of historical fiction by the author of the The Floating Book.
Set against the vivid, haunting backdrops of eighteenth-century Venice and London, The Remedy weaves together the stories of three mesmerizing characters: Venetian actress Mimosina Dolcezza -- snatched from a convent as a young woman, employed as an actress and agente provocatrice by powerful and shadowy European power brokers; the dark prince of London's medical underworld, the roguish Valentine Greatrakes; and the strange, peevish child-woman Pevenche, whose fate and identity are at the heart of the book's mystery. The love affair between Mimosina and Valentine begins in the wake of a murder and tumbles forward based on dangerous secrets and elaborate lies. As the lovers unravel the tangled truths of each other's pasts, The Remedy lures us along a path from the dank environs of London's Bankside to the vibrant streets of Venice, through playhouses and brothels, convents and crypts, with a sensual eye for detail that breathes heady, intoxicating life into the era.
Long-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, The Remedy is scholarly, seductive, and teeming with Rabelaisian characters -- a gorgeous novel that will keep the reader aching with suspense and haunted long after the final page is turned.
Review
“A bodice ripper for the Mensa set, The Remedy is a ravishing, meticulously authentic buffet of words and sensations.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
Praise for The Floating Book:“Richly textured…at turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, exhilarating and terrifying.” Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
Praise for The Floating Book:“An intriguing tale of destructive lusts and mixed-up loves…” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Labyrinthine, grandly imagined… Lovric details in titillating but fresh, graceful prose…” Publishers Weekly
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Praise for The Floating Book:“Rich in sensual descriptions of the city and its citizenry.” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Love and murder fuse the lives of an 18th-century Venetian actress and the prince of London's medical underworld in the new novel by the author of the Booksense Top Ten pick "The Floating Book."
About the Author
Michelle Lovric is the winner of the London Arts Writer's Award, the editor of the New York Times bestseller Love Letters, and the author of the widely acclaimed novel The Floating Book. She divides her time between Venice and London, where she lives in a Venetian-style setting on the Thames near Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.