What We Say: Inspired by a painting of Lucrezia de’ Medici, the real-life daughter of the famous Cosimo, The Marriage Portrait imagines the story of her marriage aged 15 to the devilish Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. O’Farrell, who won the Women’s Prize in 2020 for Hamnet, is a master of creating worlds with words, and the picture she paints of 16th-century Italy is beautifully rich, dark and evocative.
What They Say: “O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station… You may know the history, and you may think you know what’s coming, but don’t be so sure” —The Washington Post
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