Thomson - Secrecy

Chillingly brilliant and sinister Masterly.

Financial Times

Bewitching Intensely atmospheric Superb.

Daily Mail

Scene after scene trembles with breath-stopping tension on the edge of bliss or dread. No one else writes quite like this in Britain today.

The Independent

Mesmerizing Exquisitely crafted A writer of exceptional skill.

The Observer

A novel rich as the past it conjures up, weaving a story as playful and disturbing as the strange wax sculptures that its hero gives life to.

Sarah Dunant, author of the best-selling The Birth of Venus

Thomson is a bold and astonishingly creative genius a brilliant storyteller, and as confident and accomplished a writer as anyone working in the English language today Secrecy is ambitious in its reach, luminous in its realization Its hard to imagine that there will be a better novel written this year.

Globe and Mail

An exquisitely written historical mystery. It is also an artful meditation on art itself [Zummo] is consistently preoccupied with a sense of his own artistry and its relationship with the surrounding world. This allows Thomson to fill the narration with the beautifully mannered, patterned description that adorns so much of Secrecy.

Stephen Abel, Times Literary Supplement

Thomsons novels have met with a remarkable uniformity of critical acclaim Delivered via Thomsons habitual Rolls-Royce prose, [Secrecy] builds to a page-turning climax.

Nicholas Wroe, The Guardian

An impressive historical adventure written in an accomplished prose Thomson excels in suggesting a strong sense of place He is also determinedly inventive, succeeding in finding new ways to describe weather, nature, and the workings of the human mind this is a rich and intriguing work by a writer in command of his material. There is a pleasurable phrase to be found on every page.

Jonathan Barnes, Literary Review

This is part thriller, part historical novel, and its wholly satisfying.

Isabel Berwick, Financial Times

Thomsons prose is full of exquisite sensual detail that brings the dark underbelly of post-Renaissance Florence to life.

Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday

Like a luxurious art-house film, seducing you with its beautifully paced, beautifully framed images If this easy, elegant prose is nothing more than surface, then it is gratifying that Secrecy also has depths, even chasms I dont doubt there is research here, but it is Thomsons subconscious that rules the past in this book, and I bend the knee before it.

Jonathan Gibbs, Independent on Sunday

This is a superb book. From the very first page it draws you into a post-Renaissance Florence very much a novel of ideas, but with a page-turning narrative The novel is very atmospheric and brilliantly evokes the intrigue, mystery, and danger of a city beset by power struggles and conspiracies.

New Books

Thomson richly and compellingly imagines the life of the Sicilian wax sculptor Gaetano Zummo [it is] in his eye for the gothic and uncanny that Thomson excels.

Robert Collins, Sunday Times

As he unfolds his narrative, moving from Florence to Sicily and back again, dipping into the intrigues of the court and tracing the citys geography, building character and layering historical and psychological detail with deliciously measured slowness, Thomson transcends genre pretty effortlessly. He doesnt scrimp on the many satisfactions of a historical novelin particular an exotic profusion of detail, from the composition of wax (beeswax, carnauba, lead-white) to the construction of baroque fireworks, from vultures and peacocks in the Boboli gardens to the scent of violets at a Medici balland he provides an unstintingly gripping thriller plot into the bargain. But what lifts Secrecy to a more rarefied level altogether is the visionary imagination that overlays the scrupulously worked structures those genres demand. It informs the brilliance of Thomsons characterization, from the morbid monomania of a tormented Cosimo, to the brutish, coiled savagery of the Dominican enforcer Stufa, to the ghostly sadness of a neglected child. Along with a particular poetic gift for laying the exquisite alongside the visceral, it enables him to evoke Florences peculiarly sinister magic to perfection, and to thread together the real, the historical, and the purely imagined with such loving attention that I defy readers to see the join. Indeed, the join becomes irrelevant.

Christobel Kent, The Guardian

Thomsons ability to write such accomplished books in different genres is a testament to his skill as an author Secrecy is a vivid piece of historical fiction set in seventeenth-century Italy The writing was atmospheric and reminded me of Pure by Andrew Miller in the way it also contained depth and insight an enjoyable read and Id recommend it to anyone looking for a good piece of literary historical fiction.

Farm Lane Books Blog

Thomson has drawn a colorful picture of the 1600s.

Newcastle Sunday Sun

A powerfully dark, bittersweet story beautifully written.

Rosemary Goring, The Herald

This exquisitely written, macabre historical novel from Rupert Thomson perfectly recreates the sinister atmosphere of seventeenth-century Medici Florence where nothing is what it seems.

Alice Coke, Absolutely Chelsea

With Secrecy [Rupert Thomson] has hit the spot.

Hampshire Society

ALSO BY RUPERT THOMSON

FICTION

Dreams of Leaving
The Five Gates of Hell
Air & Fire
The Insult
Soft
The Book of Revelation
Divided Kingdom
Death of a Murderer

NONFICTION

This Partys Got to Stop

Copyright Rupert Thomson 2013
Originally published in Great Britain by Granta Books 2013
Production Editor: Yvonne E. Crdenas
Text Designer: Jennifer Daddio
Bookmark Design & Media Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 2 Park Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Or visit our Web site: www.otherpress.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Thomson, Rupert.
Secrecy / By Rupert Thomson.
pages cm.
Originally published in Great Britain by Granta Books 2013.
ISBN 978-1-59051-685-0 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-59051-686-7 (ebook)
1. Florence (Italy)History1737-1860Fiction. 2. Historical fiction.
I. Title.
PR6070.H685S43 2014
823.914dc23
2013022335

Publishers Note:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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FOR CALVIN MITCHELL
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