I loved O’Farrell’s last book, ‘Hamnet’, and this one was even better.  She takes us back to 16th C Italy where Cosimi, Duke of Tuscany, and his fecund wife, Eleanor, are raising their brood of 8 or 9 children (I lost track of the Marys, Isabellas, Pietros, etc.).  Somewhere in the middle of the sequence, Lucre’ or Lucrezia as her family calls her is born, a difficult, colicky, non-stop active infant.  When her mother gives up on consoling her, Lucrezia is handed off to Sophia and a wet nurse, both of whom will play critical roles as the story unfolds.

And this is O’Farrell’s greatest skill—-creating memorable characters and then weaving a story that relies on what appears to be a minor trait into a complex but coherent plot.  The writing is terrific, something that is apparent on page 1.  I can usually tell by the end of the first few pages whether a novel is going to work for me—the adjectives and adverbs are often the telltale sign—and O’Farrell’s prose grabbed me from the start.

I won’t ruin the story by revealing the plot, but it’s a beaut!  This was a page-turner, something that rarely happens with literary fiction since that kind of intensity of action is often restricted to thrillers and mysteries.  But O’Farrell manages to create unbearable tension as the events unfold after the 15 year old Lucrezia is married off to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and leaves Florence for her married life.  A hint—-this is not an ideal marriage!  Much of the plot and characters unfold around the eponymous portrait commissioned by the Duke and featuring Lucrezia as one of the painter’s apprentices steals the show without saying a word.

Read O’Farrell for the joy of great writing and the fun of being held in tense suspense.  I experienced the sure sign of a fine book when I put it aside for two days as I was nearing the end.  I wanted to find a quiet interval when I could sit down and uninterruptedly savor the final 30 pages.  Highly recommended.