Venetian Vespers

<p><b>A <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> AND <i>TLS</i> BOOK OF THE YEAR, </b><b>SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025<br></b><b>FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF <i>SNOW </i>AND <i>THE SEA<br></i></b><br><i><b><h2>Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. . .</h2></b></i><br>Winter 1899, and strange things are afoot. As the new century approaches, English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans for a substantial inheritance look to be dashed.<br><br>Arriving in Venice for their belated honeymoon at Palazzo Dioscuri – the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo – the couple are met by a series of seemingly<br>otherworldly occurrences, which exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed nerves. Is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city, or is he really losing his mind?<br><br><b>'A marvellous and rewarding novelist . . . He is a magician, really.' <i>THE SCOTSMAN<br></i></b><b>‘Banville has a grim gift of seeing people’s souls.’ DON DeLILLO<br></b><b>‘The most eminent innovator in Irish fiction of the last 50 years.’ <i>IRISH TIMES</i><br>‘One of my favourite writers alive.’ REBECCA F. KUANG<br>‘Banville writes prose of such luscious elegance.’ </b><i><b>NEW YORK TIMES</b></i></p>