Lent - by Jo Walton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author Jo Walton comes Lent, a magical re-imagining of the man who remade fifteenth-century Florence--in all its astonishing strangeness

Young Girolamo's life is a series of miracles.

It's a miracle that he can see demons, plain as day, and that he can cast them out with the force of his will. It's a miracle that he's friends with Pico della Mirandola, the Count of Concordia. It's a miracle that when Girolamo visits the deathbed of Lorenzo "the Magnificent," the dying Medici is wreathed in celestial light, a surprise to everyone, Lorenzo included. It's a miracle that when Charles VIII of France invades northern Italy, Girolamo meets him in the field, and convinces him to not only spare Florence but also protect it. It's a miracle than whenever Girolamo preaches, crowds swoon. It's a miracle that, despite the Pope's determination to bring young Girolamo to heel, he's still on the loose...and, now, running Florence in all but name.

That's only the beginning. Because Girolamo Savanarola is not who--or what--he thinks he is. He will discover the truth about himself at the most startling possible time. And this will be only the beginning of his many lives.

"Rendered with Walton's usual power and beauty...It's this haunting character complexity that ultimately holds the reader captive to the tale." --N. K. Jemisin, New York Times, on My Real Children

Review Quotes

"Brilliant, compelling, and frankly unputdownable." --NPR on The Just City

"Rendered with Walton's usual power and beauty...It's this haunting character complexity that ultimately holds the reader captive to the tale." --N. K. Jemisin, New York Times, on My Real Children

"Has as much in common with an Alice Munro story as it does with, say, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle." --Lev Grossman, Publishers Weekly, on My Real Children

"Walton shines, as she always does, in the small and hurtful and glorious business of interpersonal relationships...this book about philosophy, history, gender and freedom also manages to be a spectacular coming-of-age tale that encompasses everything from courtroom dramas to sexual intrigue." --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing on The Just City

"A remarkable novel of ideas...Superb. In the end, the novel does more than justice to the idea of the Just City." --Booklist, starred review, on The Just City

About the Author

JO WALTON won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012 for her novel Among Others. Before that, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. The novels of her Small Change sequence--Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown--have won acclaim ranging from national newspapers to the Romantic Times Critics' Choice Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.