''Simply amazing, so brilliantly written . . . almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant'' ANTONIA FRASER''A beautiful serpent of a novel, seductive and dangerous . . . consumes utterly - but the experience is all pleasure'' SIMON SCHAMA ''She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher . . . a tour de force of storytelling'' AMANDA FOREMAN ''An erotic and gripping thriller . . . Theology has rarely looked so sexy'' INDEPEDENTAlessandra is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back with him from northern Europe to decorate the walls of their family chapel in their Florentine palazzo. Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter''s abilities. As Medici Florence is threated by the hellfire of the monk Savonarola, the painter and his dazzling art exert an ever more powerful and erotic pull.''Dunant has created a vivid and compellingly believable picture of Renaissance Florence . . . A magnificent novel'' TELEGRAPH''This moving, gripping and impressive work is Dunant''s most beautifully achieved novel'' SUNDAY TIMES ''[Dunant''s] control, pace, and instinct are well-nigh impeccable'' FINANCIAL TIMES