From Amazon.co.uk
Mary Hoffman has in
Stravaganza: City of Masks produced a fine, complex time-slip novel filled with a love, passion and intrigue that crosses boundaries between past and present with an undeniable eloquence and sophistication.
Lucien, a 21st century boy, is dying of cancer. As he drifts in and out of consciousness in his hospital bed during a particularly difficult course of treatment, he finds himself wandering the streets of Bellezza, a beautiful city similar to Venice and filled with riches and danger.
As he fights the disease that is eating away at his young life, becoming stronger at first, but then weakening as his cancer begins to take a serious hold, his new life in Bellezza becomes increasingly more real and he finds himself at the centre of an age old battle between good an evil on the streets of the city ruled by the mysterious Duchessa. In the midst of Lucien's confusion he encounters Arianna, a wilful girl intent on breaking all the rules. And as their friendship turns slowly to love, and their relationship becomes an integral part of Bellezza's complex history, Lucien realises that he may have no choice about whether to stay in the city, or return to his own life and the parents he adores.
Beautifully written and spilling over with rich, diverse images of an elegant, lush city bathed in history and tradition, Mary Hoffman cleverly switches between the harsh, clinical reality of Lucien's 21st century illness and the sumptuous views of an opulent culture languishing somewhere in time. Clever, alluring and with a moving and unexpected ending that will leave the satisfied reader breathless, this stunning book cries out for a sequel. Age 11-14.--Susan Harrison.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Books in Canada
An old notebook whisks Lucien into the mysterious world of Bellezza, a city that is a sort of parallel to our Venice but a Venice of the 16th rather than the 20th century. Belleza is ruled by the beautiful and mischievous Duchessa who is in the midst of conducting a tense political battle with the Reman ambassador (in this time-warped world Remus, not Romulus, is the founder of the city that lies at the heart of this vast empire) and his band of thieves and assassins.
Lucien moves between our world, where he is struggling against terminal cancer, and his life as a time traveller, a Stravagante, in this fantastical otherworld. The first part of a proposed trilogy, Stravaganza is a deliciously satisfying time-travel adventure with just the right amount of depth to make it stand out as fine literary fiction.
Jeffrey Canton (Books in Canada)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
