Venetian Artisans

Venice, 1510. Maria Bartolini wants nothing more than to carry on her father's legacy as a master gilder. Instead, her father has sent her away from the only home she's ever known to train as an apprentice to Master Trevisan, a renowned painter. Maria arranges to leave the painter's workshop to return to her family workshop and to a secret lover waiting for her back home. But the encroaching Black Death foils her plans… When the painter's servants uncover the real reason why Maria has been sent away to train with Master Trevisan, they threaten to reveal a secret that could tear down her family and the future of their trade. She is forced to buy the servants' silence, but as their greed steadily grows, Maria resorts to more desperate measures. She questions whether her heart's desire is worth risking her family, her trade, and her future, but Maria's sacrifices may amount to nothing if the plague arrives on her father's doorstep and steals away everything she's ever loved…

Venetian gondola-maker Luca Vianello considers his whole life arranged. His father charted a course for his eldest son from the day he was born, and Luca is positioned to inherit one of the city's most esteemed boatyards. But when Luca experiences an unexpected tragedy in the boatyard, he believes that his destiny lies elsewhere. Soon he finds himself drawn to restore an antique gondola with the dream of taking a girl for a ride. The Gondola Maker brings the centuries-old art of gondola-making to life in the tale of a young man's complicated relationship with his master-craftsman father. Lovers of historical fiction will appreciate the authentic details of gondola craftsmanship, along with an intimate first-person narrative set against the richly textured backdrop of 16th-century Venice.