Shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2023 Fiction Book of the Year
Waterstones Exclusive Edition - double cover with inside printing and exclusive content
A Standard Edition is also available
The Marriage Portrait is a dazzling evocation of the Italian Renaissance in all its beauty and brutality.
Winter,1561. Lucrezia,Duchess of Ferrara,is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband,Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.
Lucrezia is sixteen years old,and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence's grandest palazzo. Here,in this remote villa,she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.
What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge What chance does she have against Alfonso,ruler of a province,and a trained soldier How can she ensure her survival.
The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.
Publisher: Headline Publishing GroupISBN: 9781035409648Number of pages: 448Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Every bit as evocative and spellbinding as Hamnet. O'Farrell,thank God,just seems to be getting better and better... O'Farrell's writing is so vivid it melts away the time and space between now and 16th-century Italy... with The Marriage Portrait,then,O'Farrell hasn't just produced another magnificently transporting page-turner. She has given us an exhilarating,devastating look at women's captivity,creativity and ultimately,rebellion in a world run by some very cruel men'- i newspaper
'Finely written and vividly imagined,it is far from being simplistic,but there is an engaging simplicity to it... a very good one to be read,as publishers used to say,by "children of all ages"'- Guardian
'In O'Farrell's hands,historical detail comes alive... evocative,moving and sensitively rendered'- Spectator
'Her writing is exquisite. Immersive and compelling'- Marian Keyes'An extraordinary writer with a profound understanding of the most elemental human bonds'- Observer
Maggie O'Farrell
Waterstones has been a keen early advocate of Maggie O'Farrell since we identified her as a talent to watch in our 25 Authors of the Future list back in 2007 aftersupporting her brilliant debutAfter You'd Gone. Since then she's continued to impress with novels including:Instructions for a Heatwave,The Hand That First Held Mine(for which she won the Costa Book Award) and This Must Be the Place.
Visit the Maggie O'Farrell author page
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