Following his hugely acclaimed debut, The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi (Γ―ΒΏΒ½Fascinatingly ambitious . . . HauntingΓ―ΒΏΒ½ --The New York Times), Arthur JapinΓ―ΒΏΒ½s magnificently imagined second novel takes us into the most rarified and the most sordid realms of eighteenth-century Europe in the company of an extraordinary woman.
She is a servant girl in an Italian manor house, educated by her lascivious lord, engaged to a young man by the name of GiacomoΓ―ΒΏΒ½and suddenly disfigured by the pox. Fleeing in shame and without warning, piercing the heart of her beloved, Lucia faces a bewildering new world alone. She will move across Europe for sixteen yearsΓ―ΒΏΒ½from Naples to Venice, Paris, and AmsterdamΓ―ΒΏΒ½working as a housekeeper, a ladyΓ―ΒΏΒ½s companion, and finally, as a much-sought-after courtesan. In salons, opera boxes, and boudoirs, her curiosity and intelligence are nurtured by the revolutionary new ideas of the Enlightenment, passionately debated in spheres of society she has never known before. But not until her accidental reunion with Giacomo CasanovaΓ―ΒΏΒ½now the tragic figure of infamous legendΓ―ΒΏΒ½will the lessons of her astonishing journey be revealed to her, and with them, her truest self.
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