Why a Booktrail?
1717: An opulent and sensuous Venetian fairytale
Maddalena and the Dark
What you need to know before your trail
Venice, 1717. Before Maddalena arrived at the Ospedale della Pietà, Venice’s most illustrious music school, fifteen-year-old orphan Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena.
Sent to the Pietà until her noble family can find her a husband, Maddalena is cunning, passionate, and unlike anyone Luisa has ever met. Maddalena can promise the world to Luisa, and when she does, their fates intertwine.
But Maddalena has made a dangerous wager and, for both girls, there will be an unimaginable price to pay.
Travel Guide
Venice
“Foreigners come to Venice to escape their lives, but few stay more than a few weeks. The freedoms that sound so appealing from London or Prague are only attractive in the realm of fantasy. Real life has its frustrations of course – an inherited estate with debts to pay; a decided lack of courtesans – but is ultimately preferable to infinite phantasmagoria. This is why Carnival lasts just a season, albeit a long one, and why the Great Council has traditionally tried to curb the most outrageous of its gluttonies. Gone are the days when Venice acted as a military power, gone are the days when empires fell at her hand.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Maddalena and the Dark
Destination: Venice Author/guide: Julia Fine Departure Time: 1717
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