Lead Review

• Book: Secrecy
• Location: Florence
• Author: Rupert Thomson

‘This is a book that scores top marks for atmosphere, for the way in which the smell, and look , of pre-18th century Florence is conveyed, for the cinematic sense of menace that lurks round every street corner, every candle-lit arras, and every formal garden. The description of the method by which Zummo works for 30 hours to take a plaster cast of the corpse, and the depiction of the final object, with its own hair, and glass eyes from Murano, is chillingly brilliant and sinister. A superb depiction of a pre-Enlightenment world, shimmering with superstitions, repression, and incomprehension, and a plot that really is masterly.’ –Financial Times

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