The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club by Maggie O'farrell

The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club by Maggie O'farrell

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

"I could not stop reading this incredible true story." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club Pick)

"O'Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history, and you may think you know what's coming, but don't be so sure." --The Washington Post

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
 
Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
 
As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess's future hangs entirely in the balance.
 
Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman's battle for her very survival.

After You'd Gone, My Lover's Lover, The Space Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine, which won the Costa Novel Award, and Instructions for a Heatwave, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, are Maggie O'Farrell's previous novels. She is a resident of Edinburgh.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780593315088
ISBN 10	0593315081
Title	The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club
Author	Maggie O'farrell
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2023-07-11
Number of pages	352
Prizes	Short-listed for Women's Prize for Fiction 2023, Long-listed for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction 2023
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.