This is a lovely book, though it took me a while to see the real connection between all the story lines. They all unfold slowly, but the Venice backdrop and the artwork of Titian turn this into delightful reading. I especially liked the parts in which the courtesan tells the story of her unlikely background. The fact that rich families forced some of their daughters into a monastery, just so they could give a higher dowry to the most beautiful one, was known to me, but I was entirely unaware of the children born in those monasteries. Imagine you can begin anywhere... is a good sentence to start this novel, because the reader can indeed begin with any part, and end as well since they are all intertwined. For lovers of art and history!

Venice of 1576 was never so more thrilling!
Historic Thriller with so many details that makes you feel, see and smell Venice from the old days.
Absolutely must read!

This book surprised me - it's well written and characters are vivid and credible - historical or contemporary - i had a little trouble doing all the bouncing back and forth in time, and then within the time frame, jumping about too. That's tough! We move from Titian and his duff son, attempting to enter his plague-ridden father's house to get what he could from the studio of the famous artist - and we are told by the secretly wealthy boatman transporting him (as he had his father) that thieves had got there first ... to the maid of a wealthy family owning the very Titian painting we hear Titian, as a young man, talking about painting ... then there are the lovers, an actor and his new Italian boyfriend - traveling to Venice to find his long-lost mother - and that painting keeps popping up - that was most satisfying - to watch how things were linked with a genuine sense of what such a work of art might mean not only to the painter but to the viewer. Then there's a love story between a courtesan way back in Venice and a nobleman - again, a story of losing your father and your mother - rich and evocative - it's only the jumping around in time that was distracting in this ambitious novel. Really wonderful.