The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White

I found myself taking an odd sort of comfort in these parallels-the more things change, right? But they also helped deepen my connection to the story, the characters and their way of life so exotic, so different in so many ways from our own. And it comes through in the way White archly points out the parallels between 15th-century Florentine society and our own-the religious zealots whipping the masses into a frenzy of fear and misdirected blame, the deep divide between the haves and have-nots, the very character of Guid'Antonio, as full of angst, including the marital variety, as any male protagonist in contemporary fiction.

It comes through in White's cleverly drawn minor characters, especially the all-knowing, sardonic Cesare, Guid'Antonio's manservant. 'No, you've come home to Italy,' remarks the man's nephew. It comes through in dialogue: 'God, I've died and gone to heaven,' her protagonist Guid'Antonio Vespucci says over a meal of roast pork and fried ravioli.

I heartily concur, but also must note the considerable wit at work in the book-one of the many qualities that make it such an enjoyable reading experience. Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Gabon Republic, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greenland, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.Critics are praising Alana White's elegant prose and her skill in weaving a vast amount of historical detail into the plot of this fascinating mystery novel set in Renaissance Florence.

The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White