Sacred Hearts - Sarah Dunant

''The pre-eminent novelist of Renaissance Italy'' S. J. PARRIS, OBSERVER''Dunant triumphs, like all good novelists: in a deft, shrewd, precise use of killer detail'' CHRISTOBEL KENT, GUARDIAN''She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher . . . A tour de force of storytelling'' AMANDA FOREMAN''A writer of powerful historical imagination and wicked literary gifts'' SIMON SCHAMA1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara. Sixteen-year-old Serafina is fipped by her family from an illicit love affair and forced into the convent of Santa Caterina, renowned for its superb music. Serafina''s one weapon is her glorious voice, but she refuses to sing. Madonna Chiara, an abbess as fluent in politics as she is in prayer, finds her new charge has unleased a power play - rebellion, ecstasies and hysterias - within the convent. However, watching over Serafina is Zuana, the sister in charge of the infirmary, who understands and might even challenge her incarceration.