Geoff Prickett

Yes - it is a wonderful book. To begin with the writing - it is beautifully written. It is as if every sentence is honed to perfection but without pretension - a joy to read. The story was different, even unique. Written in the first person it takes us on the life's journey of one whose life's work was words while her life's experiences were of her times - women's rights and the First World War. I finished it yesterday - today I'll take it to a 101 year old woman who is a voracious and opinionated reader. I'm sure she will love it.

Mesmerising and evocative. The story is told in the first person which gives it - and the reader - a sense of connection to a Florence that was shaking off the Medici world in the face of the Christian fanaticism of the monk Savonarola. Beautifully written - it is a story of a city and the people in it who's lives were in a turmoil. None more so than young Alessandra who relates how she finds her way through the dangerous world of social and familial expectations, political upheaval, an awakening relationship with the great art of the times and her personal voyage through life. I bought the book for $2 at the local Saturday market - worth a lot more than that. It was one of those books where the reader deliberately slows the reading just to get full value from every paragraph and every line and finishes with regret.