Scarpia by Piers Paul Read
Based on one of the central figures from Tosca, Puccinis classic opera, Scarpia is a powerful story of love, lust and political intrigue set in Rome after the French Revolution
Piers Paul Read is one of Britain’s most intelligent and disturbing writers * New York Times Book Review *
Undoubtedly one of the most talented novelists of his generation * Sunday Telegraph *
Inventive and rooted in sound historical research * Mail on Sunday *
Marvellously comic, superbly inventive … One of the most arresting British novelists * The Times *
Brilliant.. perfect for nights in * Stylist *
You don’t need to know the opera Tosca to understand and enjoy this book about Puccini’s most notorious villain ... [it] left me shocked and befuddled * Spectator *
[An] intriguing combination of religiosity and evil * Tablet *
The whole book is a vivid Ground Tour -- Simon Rees * Literary Review *
What a pleasure it is to read a novel by a writer who knows precisely what he is doing and how to bring it off … Piers Paul Read is a very good novelist indeed, one who sets himself different challenges with every book … This is a wonderfully rich book, its picture of late-18th-century Rome, Naples, Calabria and Sicily absorbing, delightful, at times horrible, completely credible. Read has not only thoroughly mastered his research; he has done what the novel can do better than any history: he has illuminated it by his creative imagination … Scarpia is an outstanding historical novel (which means it is simply an outstanding novel), up there, in this new golden age of historical fiction, with Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell books and Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy -- Allan Massie * Oldie *
Superbly written and researched … It’s a powerful tale of passion and betrayal, but what gives it depth is Read’s eye for detail and his evocation of political turmoil in the wake of the French Revolution. Historical fiction at its finest * Mail on Sunday *
Undoubtedly one of the most talented novelists of his generation * Sunday Telegraph *
Inventive and rooted in sound historical research * Mail on Sunday *
Marvellously comic, superbly inventive … One of the most arresting British novelists * The Times *
Brilliant.. perfect for nights in * Stylist *
You don’t need to know the opera Tosca to understand and enjoy this book about Puccini’s most notorious villain ... [it] left me shocked and befuddled * Spectator *
[An] intriguing combination of religiosity and evil * Tablet *
The whole book is a vivid Ground Tour -- Simon Rees * Literary Review *
What a pleasure it is to read a novel by a writer who knows precisely what he is doing and how to bring it off … Piers Paul Read is a very good novelist indeed, one who sets himself different challenges with every book … This is a wonderfully rich book, its picture of late-18th-century Rome, Naples, Calabria and Sicily absorbing, delightful, at times horrible, completely credible. Read has not only thoroughly mastered his research; he has done what the novel can do better than any history: he has illuminated it by his creative imagination … Scarpia is an outstanding historical novel (which means it is simply an outstanding novel), up there, in this new golden age of historical fiction, with Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell books and Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy -- Allan Massie * Oldie *
Superbly written and researched … It’s a powerful tale of passion and betrayal, but what gives it depth is Read’s eye for detail and his evocation of political turmoil in the wake of the French Revolution. Historical fiction at its finest * Mail on Sunday *
Piers Paul Read is best known for his book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which documented the story of the 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 and was adapted into a film in 1993. He has won a number of prizes for his fiction, including the Hawthornden Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781408867518 |
| ISBN 10 | 1408867516 |
| Title | Scarpia |
| Author | Piers Paul Read |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Year published | 2016-08-25 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |