Michelle Lovric - Böcker

The book of human skin is a large volume with many pages of villainy writ upon it. There are people who are a disease, you know.13 May, 1784, Venice: Minguillo Fasan, heir to the decaying, gothic Palazzo Espagnol, is born. Yet Minguillo is no ordinary child: he is strange, devious and all those who come near him are fearful. Twelve years later Minguillo is faced with an unexpected threat to his inheritance: a newborn sister, Marcella. His untempered jealousy will condemn his sister to a series of fates as a cripple, a madwoman and a nun. But in his insatiable quest to destroy her, he may have underestimated his sister's ferocious determination, and her unlikely allies who will go to extraordinary lengths to save her...

It is the age of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, when Europe burns with a passion for long, flowing locks. And when seven Irish sisters, penniless and fatherless, grow up with hair cascading down their backs, to their ankles, and beyond, men are not slow to recognise their potential. It begins with a singing and dancing septet, but this is not what fills the seats: it is the torrents of hair they let loose at the end of each show. Their hair is a rich offering and will take the sisters out of poverty, through the dance halls of Ireland, to the salons of Dublin and the palazzi of Venice. It will bring them suitors and obsessive admirers, it will bring some of them love, and each of them loss. For their past trails behind the sisters like the tresses on their heads and their fame and fortune will come at a terrible price...

It's the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems, among whose delegates are the parents of twelve-year-old Teodora. Within days of her arrival, she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets and librarians turn fluidly into cats. A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once and for all quickly ensues. Only Teo, the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby, can go 'between the linings' to subvert evil and restore order.

A brand new exquisitely imagined historical fantasy novel set on the canals of Venice from award-winning author, Michelle Lovric for ages 9+Venice in 1740, a serene and lovely city.But look beneath the surface . . . step off the edge of what you think you know . . .Young orphan Lily has grown up in a glum, prison-like convent. Her only freedom is walking the beautiful streets of Venice, dreaming of escape...of a family...of being loved.Then someone tries to steal the bones of Venice's beloved Saint Lucy. Without her protection, the city's vibrant colours fade to grey. And soon, the Venetians start to turn on one another.If Lily can't find a way to save Saint Lucy, Venice - the only home she's ever known - will descend into darkness...forever.A magical adventure set amongst mysterious canals and filled with monstrous eels, moody mermaids and menacing curses.