City of Silk set in Bologna
City of Silk – Glennis Virgo
Elena Morandi is a supremely talented seamstress. However, she is determined that her ambition to be a tailor, a profession barred to her as a woman. With luck and perseverance, Elena gains a fragile foothold in the workshop of a master tailor, but then a man from her past crosses her path. Antonio della Fontana has every corner of the city in his pocket and, as Elena knows all too well, abused his position of power at the Baraccano orphanage. Driven to fight for justice against a man seemingly above the law, Elena hatches a plan to get retribution for herself, a lost friend and those still prey to Fontana’s abuses.
Map of locations in City of Silk
BOARDING PASS INFORMATION
Destination : Bologna
Author guide: Glennis Virgo
Genre: historical fiction
Food and drink to accompany: nothing in case you drip it on the fabric
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A novel to transport you to Bologna
Map of locations in City of Silk
Well this is just glorious. As exquisite as the silk itself. To read this book is to spend time in Bologna’s streets taking them all in. It’s glorious to be able to time travel via this book as I was fascinated to learn about the silk trade at the time. I can’t sew a button but even I wanted to train as a tailor by only a few chapters in.
What I really loved was the different speeds of this book. Not sure if it’s something that a language nerd would notice but the speed and flow of the prose was at odds with the pace of the plot and that was delicious to read. It made me stop in places when reading and pick up detail and nuances don’t normally. It was like being in a literary orchestra with the percussion and the string section at odds but beautifully in harmony.
Elena can sew however and wants to train to be the best tailor of her generation. Sadly, her generation was one where only men were tailors. It’s not allowed at the time, but Elena is ahead of her time. ( I think if she had have been in my time, we would have been friends. Probably sewing buddies. Anyway I digress….)
I think some of the characters from this story are inspired or based on real ones. It certainly feels very realistic and you can tell the author has taken pains to research but them seamlessly introduce details into the plot like the finest invisible zip.
I really loved this book. It’s a delight in so many ways.
Map of locations in City of Silk
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