The Floating Book - by Michelle Lovric (Paperback)

About the Book

This ravishing historical novel is set in the alleys and canals of 15th-century Venice as the revolution of movable type captivates--and terrifies--the city.

From the Back Cover

Venice, 1468. Wendelin von Speyer has just arrived from Germany with the foundations of a cultural revolution: Gutenberg's movable type. Together with the young editor Bruno Uguccione and the seductive scribe Felice Feliciano, he starts the city's first printing press. While Bruno and Felice become entwined in an obsessive love triangle with a beautiful Dalmatian woman named Sosia, Wendelin tempts the fates by publishing the first edition of the erotic Roman poems of Catullus -- a move that will enrage the church, scandalize the city, and change all of their lives forever.

The Floating Book is a ravishing novel of letters and lust, intrigue and betrayal -- a chillingly beautiful debut that few readers will soon forget.

Review Quotes

"Gifted...always revealing, never anachronistic, and never, ever lazy....Lovric brings to The Floating Book a command of her subject so intimate that it is almost indecent. . ." - Washington Post Book World
"Lovric's big, lush novel follows a vibrant cast of characters. . . . Meticulous historical detail and a splendid complex story make this portrait of Venice and its denizens memorable and moving." - Booklist (starred review)
"The novel is rich in sensual descriptions of the city and its citizentry." - Kirkus Reviews
"Breathtaking. . . . Lovric thrusts out her story like a great bolt of ravishing, red, Ventian velvet." - Marlena de Blasi, author of A Thousand Days in Venice