One man, however -a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose -has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten. Thus, for the skilled craftsmen that made them, any attempt to leave the island-to steal the technology-was a crime punishable by death. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination -was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing? -the Venetian mirrors were state-of-the-art technology, subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. The core story is set in sixteenth-century Venice, where, on the island of Murano, the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror.

Set in three different eras, and in three different locations-all, coincidentally, named Venice-this 'startling, beautiful gem of a book' (NPR) calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado.

the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it. As the three stories weave together through time and space, the reader is drawn into a world of violence, and obsession.īook Synopsis A New York Times NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEARĪ Publishers Weekly BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as Audaciously well written. In 1958 Venice Beach, California, and in today's Venetian casino in Las Vegas, other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret. but one man schemes to outwit the enforcers of the edict. About the Book In sixteenth century Venice, the famed makers of Venetian glass faced death if they tried to leave the island.

The mirror thief