Perspectives

Florence, New Year''s Day 1557. As dawn breaks, a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden painting scandalously depicting Maria de Medici, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Florence, as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who is behind the painting? As the city erupts in chaos, Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation. Letters fly back and forth carrying news of political plots and speculation about the killer''s identity - between Maria and her aunt Catherine de'' Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and her scheming agents in Florence; and between Vasari and his friend Michelangelo. Meanwhile, the Pope is banning books and branding works of art immoral. And the truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot centre of Europe. Bursting with characters and colour, Perspectives is a mystery like no other that shows us Renaissance Florence as we''ve never seen it before - a dazzling, hugely entertaining novel of court machinations, murder and art.

About the author

Laurent Binet lives and works in France. His first novel, HHhH, was an international bestseller which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt du premier roman, among other prizes. The 7th Function of Language won the Prix de la FNAC and Prix Interallié. Civilisations is a bestseller that has won the Grand Prix de l'Académie française.Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated more than 60 books from French including Laurent Binet's HHhH and Leila Slimani's Lullaby.

Product details

• Authors: Laurent Binet, Binet Laurent
• Assisted by: Sam Taylor (Translation), Taylor Sam (Translation)
• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.02.2025
• EAN: 9781787304482
• ISBN: 978-1-78730-448-2
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 141 mm x 221 mm x 24 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth, Crime & mystery, Historical fiction, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Political, FICTION / Cultural Heritage, FICTION / Epistolary, florence, Italy, Narrative theme: Politics, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Renaissance art, Renaissance style, Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, European history: Renaissance, Epistolary fiction, Later 16th century c 1550 to c 1599, FICTION / World Literature / France / 21st Century