Conceptual art in the Western world is in crisis. That is the view of many people who are disillusioned with what they regard as its attention-seeking antics, where artists themselves have proudly proclaimed 'the death of art'. Why has art been on this road to destruction, and how did it get there? How does one make sense of the bewildering complexity of Conceptual art, and how does one extract meaning from its diverse and sometimes bizarre manifestations?This predicament needs exp...

An erotic historical romance based on a journal written at the start of the 16th century by a young man called Antonio, who grew up in the village of Cortona in northern Italy. His mother died in childbirth, his brother moved away to find work in Perugia, and he was left living with his father Giorgio, from whom he learned the trade of carpentry. The novel takes the form of a picaresque adventure in search of work.Running through the story is a golden threaqd, with one end being hi...

A sweeping saga of intrigue and romance set during the Italian Renaissance and told through the eyes of Grazia dei Rossi, a young Jewish woman torn between duty and forbidden romance, who wins our hearts with her recorded secrets of love.Grazia dei Rossi, private secretary to the world-renowned Isabella d’Este, is the daughter of an eminent Jewish banker, the wife of the pope’s Jewish physician, and the lover of a Christian prince. In a “secret book,” written as a legacy for her so...

Assassin's Creed: Renaissance is the thrilling novelisation by Oliver Bowden based on the game series.'I will seek Vengeance upon those who betrayed my family. I am Ezio Auditore di Firenze. I am an Assassin...'The Year of Our Lord 1476 - the Renaissance: culture and art flourish alongside the bloodiest corruption and violence. Bitter blood-feuds rage between the warring political families of Italy.Following the murder of his father and bro...

A gripping novel about history’s most infamous family—The Borgias—and an innocent girl pulled into their treacherous rise to power, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Briar Club.Rome, 1492. The Holy City is drenched with blood and teeming with secrets. A pope lies dying and the throne of God is left vacant, a prize awarded only to the most virtuous—or the most ruthless. The Borgia family begins its...

“Like Outlander with an Italian accent.” —Real Simple“A detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable love.” —Publishers Weekly, starred reviewA NEW YORK POST MUST-READ BOOKReaders of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring…will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena” (Libra...

'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 . . . ...

'The pre-eminent novelist of Renaissance Italy' S. J. PARRIS, OBSERVER'Dunant triumphs, like all good novelists: in a deft, shrewd, precise use of killer detail' CHRISTOBEL KENT, GUARDIAN'She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher . . . A tour de force of storytelling' AMANDA FOREMAN'A writer of powerful historical imagination and wicked literary gifts' SIMON SCHAMA

Even the dead have a story to tell...Naples, 1566.During a sweltering summer, eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno takes his final vows at San Domenico Maggiore and is admitted to the Dominican Order - despite doubts over his tendency to ask difficult questions. Assisting in the infirmary, Bruno witnesses an illicit autopsy performed on the body of a young woman. Her corpse reveals a dark secret, and Bruno suspects that hers may not have been an accidental death. His investigat...

When Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint 'The Last Supper' , he believes it will seal his reputation as the finest artist in Italy.Yet all does not go as planned. The notorious Papal emissary, Father Rodrigo of Salamanca accuses him of blasphemy over his decision to choose a lowly peasant, Alessandro, to be his model for Jesus.To Leonardo's horror, Alessandro takes on quasi-religious significance for the populace of Milan, dragging both into a journey of pol...

Ever-loyal Maddalena, a diminutive, blue-eyed, black slave, has borne Cosimo de' Medici a son and seen him rise to the position of cardinal. Now, late in life, she finds herself committed to a convent, as part of a scheme to protect the Medici bank from ruin by Cosimo’s sons, by hiding a fortune in gold for Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo, to inherit. But as the months go by, and the gold does not appear, her faith in Cosimo begins to wane, and with it, her confidence in her own worth. Has she ...

A brilliantly dark and compelling novel set in Venice from 'the medieval CJ Sansom' (Jeffery Deaver)Oswald de Lacy, Lord Somershill, is in Venice, awaiting a pilgrim galley to the Holy Land. While the city is under siege from the Hungarians, Oswald lodges with an English merchant, and soon comes under the dangerous spell of the decadent and dazzling island state that sits on the hinge of Europe, where East meets West.Oswald is tryi...