THE BOOK FAIR

Reminiscent of Dickens, Fulvio exposes social inequities of the time through vivid descriptions of lavish wealth and squalid poverty.  And as Tolstoy created sensitive and palpable scenes of yearning love or dreaded despair, Fulvio weaves a cast of beautifully drawn characters who scheme and dream and love and hate, characters who draw breath as they live and dwell in fascinating plots of three interconnecting stories set in 1515 Italy.

Few novelists reach a fever pitch in the first pages of the story then maintain the level of excitement throughout.  A novel of intense suspense where victims eye victors,  poor prey on poorer, hunters face the hunted and where love and hate intersect.  Unforgettable figures, men and women, con artists and lovers, immersed in intrigue, desire, and jealousy intertwine with those who wage murder, evil, and revenge, and all converge in this intelligent, exceptional, quickly paced book.

As the novel reveals the history of Jews in Christian Europe, the story explores the fall of a timid, Jewish merchant in Rome, tricked and robbed by a band of con artists and petty thieves.  The attack results in a disaster that changes all of their lives and sets them, by the will of their deeds, on a course for either redemption or disaster.

Simultaneously, against the backdrop of the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, a passionate love story develops between a young, Christian man, and a young, Jewish woman that quickens the unpredictable, and continually robust plot, that harbors complex personalities who change in persona with the ease of a chameleon.

Fascinating! Highly recommended!