NEVER MISS AN ISSUE!

Sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form

ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Tinder Press

FORMAT: Hardback

ISBN: 9781472223845

RRP: £25.00

PAGES: 448pp

PUBLICATION DATE:
August 30, 2022

BUY THIS BOOK

As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop.org affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Marriage Portrait

By Maggie O' Farrell

‘Someone swore that, as a little girl, he once saw you touch a tiger. And that the tiger didn’t harm you, it let you stroke it. It was always said that you had charmed the beast.’

Winter, 1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.

Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence’s grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.

What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival.

The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.

Reviews of The Marriage Portrait

'O'Farrell is simply outstanding' Guardian

'Her writing is exquisite. Immersive and compelling' Marian Keyes

Share this

By Maggie O' Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, is the author of HAMNET, Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020, and the memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, both Sunday Times no. 1 bestsellers. Her novels include AFTER YOU’D GONE, MY LOVER’S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE and THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT. She is also the author of two books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO and THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK. She lives in Edinburgh.