First published 1986
Simone Memmo works stone in sixteenth-century Venice, carving marble into forms that blur the line between devotion and desire. When he receives a commission for a Madonna statue, his artistic vision becomes entangled with his patron's young wife. The sculptor's hands shape more than stone as he navigates the treacherous currents of Renaissance politics, religious fervor, and personal ambition. His workshop becomes a stage where sacred and profane desires collide. Venice itself pulses around him, a city built on water and wealth, where art serves both God and mammon. As Simone chisels away at his creation, he discovers that some transformations cut deeper than marble. The statue he carves begins to reflect not divine perfection but human complexity. His patron watches, his wife poses, and Simone finds himself caught between the stone he shapes and the forces that shape him.
Genres: art, romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-love
Setting: Venice
Period: 16th Century
309 pages · Hardcover · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt