The Sack of Rome
ISBN-13: 9781066836826
Contributor(s): Sarah Dunant
Subject: Historical Fiction
Publisher Imprint: Ravenna Press
Publication Date: 06-05-2027
Format: Hardback
Availability: Not yet published
£18.99
About the book
1527: Rome is on the brink. An army has gathered, hell-bent on capturing the biggest possible prize: The Eternal City. And within the city walls, the Pope is fighting against internal forces that threaten the city from its very core. The stage is set for one of the bloodiest, most influential events in hundreds of years. The Army: Gonzaga Ferrante is a young commander in the Holy Roman Empire's army of mercenaries. Fiercely loyal to the Empire, his crucial role in the Sack will lead him into a crisis of divided loyalties, with his mother - and with a woman whom he does not yet know, but who will change his life. The Pope: Pope Clement knows that the impossible is now possible: the Holy See, the seat of the Catholic religion, the greatest city on Earth, may fall. As he attempts to defend this sacred place, all his resources, political, spiritual and personal, are tested to the limit. The Courtesan: Angela has been trained as a courtesan since girlhood. She is intimate with Rome's greatest figures, in politics, commerce - and the Church. The incipient Sack will change her life forever. There are no safe places for people like her - and her very survival is at stake. The Artist: Benvenuto Cellini is the most celebrated goldsmith in Rome. But when the Pope demands he turn his talents to the defence of the city, his ingenuity and character are stretched to the utmost. Sarah Dunant's The Sack Of Rome is a masterful and vivid imagining of this momentous event, weaving together stories of power, religion, sex and art with consummate skill. The personal and the political are bound together: rarely have the violence, beauty and intrigue of the Renaissance been rendered with such verve.