Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
City of Silk - The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month - 'Enjoyable and immersive' - cover

City of Silk - The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month - 'Enjoyable and immersive'

Glennis Virgo

Publisher: Allison & Busby

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

Summary

'My favourite kind of historical fiction ... So beautifully atmospheric ... I loved this book and can't wait to read more from Glennis Virgo' - Frances Quinn, author of That Bonesetter Woman
Bologna, 1575.
A talented seamstress
A powerful merchant

A fierce battle of wills

Bologna, 1575. A talented seamstress. A powerful merchant. A fierce battle of wills.


Elena Morandi has gained a fragile foothold in a master tailor's workshop, despite the profession being barred to women. But then Antonio della Fontana, a powerful man from her past, crosses her path and threatens everything she has built. Fontana has every corner of the city in his pocket and Elena knows all too well of his past abuses. Driven to fight for justice, she hatches a daring plan to get retribution for herself, a lost friend and his other victims.


The sights, sounds and textures of Renaissance Italy are brought to vivid life in this breathtaking historical fiction debut.
'I LOVED this. The characters sing. Bravo' - Sara Sheridan, author of The Fair Botanists
Available since: 11/21/2024.
Print length: 352 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Something About Ann - cover

    Something About Ann

    J. Everett Prewitt

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Something About Ann is a historical fiction novella with eleven short stories. The novella and the short stories follow a group of soldiers who faced a traumatic experience in Vietnam but remained close after returning to the States. Violence and turmoil continue to haunt the soldiers as they try to normalize their lives. Sometimes relying on the help of each other, and sometimes relying on the skills they’ve gained in combat, most prevail.
    Show book
  • Top 10 Short Stories The - The 1860's - The Men - The top ten short stories written in the 1860s by male authors - cover

    Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles...

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
     
    In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
     
    The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
     
    Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
     
    This mid-century decade reveals a journey traversing continents and genres as authors explore and revel in the telling of tumultuous times of social upheaval as nations are divided by Civil War or expand with the brute force of Imperial Dreams.  Our writers are here to document and narrate more about this fascinating decade. 
     
    01 - The Top 10 - The 1860's - The Men - An Introduction 
    02 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 1 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
    03 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 2 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
    04 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
    05 - The Generous Gambler by Charles Baudelaire 
    06 - The Romance of Certain Old Clothes by Henry James 
    07 - Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope 
    08 - The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte 
    05 - The Astounding Adventure of Wheeler J Calamity, Related by Himslef by W S Gilbert 
    10 - The Spectre Bridegroom by William Hunt 
    11 - The 9.30 Up-Train by Sabine Baring-Gould 
    12 - The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale
    Show book
  • The Lost Child - cover

    The Lost Child

    Kathleen McGurl

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    A sweeping dual-timeline novel from the bestselling author of The Girl from Bletchley Park. 
    All she wanted was a child of her own… 
    1912. As the steamship Carpathia takes the survivors of the Titanic to New York, Lucy desperately searches the decks for her baby, thrust into the arms of another woman as a lifeboat left, and now nowhere to be found. Madeleine is helping her journalist husband to interview the survivors, and when she meets Lucy, she promises she will do anything she can to help her find her lost child. 
    2022. When archivist Jackie finds a notebook containing the stories of women saved by the Carpathia amongst an auction lot, she learns the story of the missing baby. Desperate to start a family of her own, she feels compelled to dig further. And her search will lead her to a century-old mystery… 
    Inspired by true events, bestselling author Kathleen McGurl weaves history and fiction together in this captivating, deeply moving story.Readers LOVE The Lost Child! 
    'Such a great story… it blends the two eras so well' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'A story that will haunt you, in a good way!, long after you have finished the last page' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'A fantastic, heart wrenching novel' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'A must read' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'This compelling read was hard to put down' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'Made my heart smile' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    'Well-researched and fast-paced… I thoroughly enjoyed it' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
    In this heartrending saga, the desperate search of a mother for her lost child transcends time, making The Lost Child a top best-seller. The romance that unfolds amidst the tragedy is as captivating as it is unexpected. 
    For fans of Kate Morton (The Lake House), Barbara Davis (The Wishing Tide), Kristin Hannah (The Great Alone), Ellen Marie Wiseman (The Lost Girls of Willowbrook), and Susanne O'Leary (The Girl with the Irish Secret). 
    HarperCollins 2024
    Show book
  • Kalki in Parthiban Kanavu Pagam 2 Complete - Tamil Audio Book - cover

    Kalki in Parthiban Kanavu Pagam...

    Kalki Krishnamurthy

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Parthiban Kanavu, a famous Tamil historical novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy, now available as an audiobook. A timeless classic that portrays the dreams of King Parthiban and the valor of his son Vikraman, blending history, patriotism, and imagination in Tamil literature.
    Show book
  • The Weeds - cover

    The Weeds

    Katy Simpson Smith

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    A Mississippi woman pushes through the ruin of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. She has escaped her life, apprenticed herself to catalog all the species growing in this place. Crawling along the stones, she wonders how she has landed here, a reluctant botanist amid a snarl of tourists in comfortable sandals. She hunts for a scientific agenda and a direction of her own. In 1854, a woman pushes through the jungle of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. As punishment for her misbehavior, she has been indentured to the English botanist Richard Deakin, for whom she will compile a flora. She is a thief, and she must find new ways to use her hands. If only the woman she loves weren’t on a boat, with a husband. But love isn’t always possible. She logs 420 species. Through a list of seemingly minor plants and their uses?medical, agricultural, culinary?these women calculate intangible threats: a changing climate, the cost of knowledge, and the ways repeated violence can upend women’s lives. They must forge their own small acts of defiance and slip through whatever cracks they find. How can anyone survive? Lush, intoxicating, and teeming with mischief, The Weeds is a tense, mesmerizing page-turner about science and survival, the roles women are given and have taken from them, and the lives they make for themselves.
    Show book
  • The Happy Valley - cover

    The Happy Valley

    Benjamin Harnett

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In this kaleidoscopic voyage through the past, present, and future of the United States, a young girl uncovers a secret society, a middle-aged man searches for his lost first love, a group of teens invent a role-playing game, protests threaten to topple the government, and an eccentric lawyer and his young Vietnamese protégée re-open a dormant case. 
    This atmospheric tale, at turns gothic, poetic, cerebral, and funny, ranges from rural Upstate New York to the far reaches of the Zebulon Galaxy; from the 1700s to the 4th decade of the 21st century. Includes 66 full-page b&w illustrations by the author, maps, an Appendix with a Timeline, and a Reading Group Guide. 
    “One of the most intriguing, beguiling, and thought-provoking books I read this year.” 
    —Diana Spencer, author of Varro’ s Guide to Being Roman 
    “Fabulous and engaging ... richly creative!”   
    —Glenda Burgess, award-winning author of So Long As We ’ re Together 
    In a near-future America, on the eve of revolution, a message pops up on a screen, “Can you help me?”­—then it, and its sender, June, disappear. 
    June’s disappearance prompts a visit back to the narrator’s rural, Upstate New York hometown, and a reconstruction of their shared past in the early 90s, when he and his group of friends created their own roleplaying adventure in a clubhouse on a dilapidating farm. 
    It was June’s entry into their group that made all their game-playing real, and embroiled the teens in a great mystery, starting with the strange, serpent-headed key that flashed gold on custodian Clyde Duane’s copious key ring, and spiraled outward—connecting their town’s hidden past to a movement that could change everything about the way we live. 
    Populated by a fantastic cast of characters, this captivating book stands at the intersection of philosophy and adventure.
    Show book