#BlogTour ‘The Lost Diary Of Venice’ by Margaux Deroux

About the book…

A secret diary. A forbidden love. A centuries old mystery to solve.

When a rare sixteenth-century manuscript lands on her desk courtesy of William, a struggling painter, shy book restorer Rose makes a startling discovery: it is a palimpsest. Beneath the text is a different document, one that’s been written over. What they discover is the secret diary of William’s ancestor, Giovanni Lomazzo, a Venetian painter who has just been commissioned by Venice’s most powerful admiral to paint a portrait of his favourite courtesan… it is a diary of forbidden love, dangerous political plots, and secrets that could destroy everyone involved.

Together, Rose and William work to solve the mystery of what happened to the secret lovers. As feelings develop between Rose and William, their own experience begins to mirror the affair that they’re uncovering, and each set of lovers is forced to confront the reality of their romance.

A richly detailed and sweeping page-turner, Margaux’s sumptuous portrait of late Renaissance Italy will have you falling headlong into history, slipping in and out of the shadows along the canals of Venice.

Huge thanks to Alex Layt for the opportunity to read and review ‘‘The Lost Diary Of Venice’ which is out now in paperback,audiobook and ebook formats.

A verdant and sweeping tale of love, mystery and discovery comes alive in the pages of this book, centering the Italian Renaissance in Venice in the past , whilst the life of a modern New Yorker who is somehow ‘bound’ within the confines of her life as a book repairer cum bookshop owner, represents the current times.

These timeframes become intertwined when William Lomazzo, an artist going through his own painful deconstruction of his marriage, brings New Yorker Rose, a family heirloom to translate and recover. She quickly realises that it is a palimpset, a rare object wherein the words ostensibly being told, hide another text which is written upside down underneath the main text.

As Rose begins to bloom, coming out of her shell which she has been in since leaving uni, caring for her dying father then taking over her business, Will aims to dissect how his marriage went so wrong by looking to his own past. His discovery that the book, the treatise written by his ancestor Giovanni,also an artist, contains writings on how to frame bodies, and represent anatomy truthfully.

Gio speaks of writing about the essential art of art, if you will , how the tools of the artist can be wielded to maximum effect. His words are his art and his legacy something that I think troubles Will as he looks for what his contribution to the world will be now that his wife has moved away with their daughters. As for Rose, she is revealing as much of herself in the course of looking into the book, and as they dance cautiously around each other, the magic of the treatise begins to emanate from the pages of history.

The chapters alternate between Will and Rose in the present and Gio and Chiara in the past. Gio has been hired to document, in portrait fashion,the courtesans of Venetian statesman Venier. As he grows older, the girls he surrounds himself become younger and younger and he uses the portraits to boast his virility and power to other statesmen. His focus is absolutely not on the impending threat from the Ottoman Empire who are plotting to take Cyprus under their control, and then, to take Venice.

Gio is an artist who is losing his sight but he does not need 20/20 vision to fall in love with Chiara, who is bright, intellectual and a composer-all attributes she has to hide in court as women are meant to comlement their men rather like a statement necklace rather than making staements of their own.

The intertwining of both stories is sinuously wrapped around each other, and are incredibly moving, The aching and loneliness of people who are so involved in their art-books, music, painting-that they almost exclude the chance at real love feels very honest and authentic. I really enjoyed reading this moving novel, and , encouraged by the author’s note on what is and isn’t real, I plan on looking deeper into this period of time and the fascinating art of bookbinding. When science and man feel that they are close enough to God that they feel have nothing to advance, I love the notion that the past still has lessons to teach us and that art still has, and always will have , the power to create a reaction and engender emotions.

About the author…

I grew up in the lush wilderness of Alaska and now live with my husband and daughter in San Francisco. I come from a family of painters, and I write historical fiction that centers on art and artists. Please feel free to ask questions, I love to connect with readers!

Twitter @margauxderoux @TrapezeBooks