Set in Renaissance-era Florence, this ravishing debut reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men—a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo.
‘A dazzlingly prescient parable of ambition, greed, and wealth rattling even the firmest foundations. Like the fractured Italy leaping from its pages full of life and sound and smell, Florenzer churns at the quicksilver pace of creation itself.’—Isa Arsén, author of Shoot the Moon
Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors—and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets.
Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici’s bank exacerbates the city''s staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe’s preeminent destination for gay men—or ‘florenzers,’ as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter’s apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation—but risk lingers around every corner.
Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama unfolds the machinations of a city on the brink of a new age as it contends with the tensions between public and private lives, the entanglement of erotic and creative impulse, the sacrifices of the determinedly pious, and the risks of fantastic power. With his ‘unforgettable characters and an ever-twisting plot, all told with style, skill, and wry black humor’ (Tim Leach), Phil Melanson emerges as an enthralling new voice in contemporary fiction.
Genre: Historical
‘A dazzlingly prescient parable of ambition, greed, and wealth rattling even the firmest foundations. Like the fractured Italy leaping from its pages full of life and sound and smell, Florenzer churns at the quicksilver pace of creation itself.’—Isa Arsén, author of Shoot the Moon
Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors—and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets.
Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici’s bank exacerbates the city''s staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe’s preeminent destination for gay men—or ‘florenzers,’ as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter’s apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation—but risk lingers around every corner.
Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama unfolds the machinations of a city on the brink of a new age as it contends with the tensions between public and private lives, the entanglement of erotic and creative impulse, the sacrifices of the determinedly pious, and the risks of fantastic power. With his ‘unforgettable characters and an ever-twisting plot, all told with style, skill, and wry black humor’ (Tim Leach), Phil Melanson emerges as an enthralling new voice in contemporary fiction.
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"It's hard to say what I loved more-the luminous prose, the spectacularly layered research, or the tenderness with which Melanson approaches young Leonardo's sexual and artistic awakening. Readers who love Italy or Renaissance art will revel in all the lush details that bring 1400s Florence to life, but one needn't be an Italophile for this breathtaking piece of historical fiction to leave you utterly transfixed." - Rachel Beanland
"Phil Melanson's gorgeous debut is a closely observed historical epic that captures the dawn of the modern era with the swaggering command of an old master. His characters are no dusty figures out of textbooks, either, but flesh-and-blood individuals who are equal parts delicate, calculating, and damaged." - Brian Castleberry
"Historical novels speak to me if and only if they leave me to reflect on their present-day resonances. Florenzer is one such work. To read this novel is to enjoy that abundance through the eyes of a young, unproven artist who will pay a heavy price for loving men in his life as in his work.... All this in gorgeous prose that captures the artist's eye like no other." - Maureen Freely
"A superb debut that encompasses both the agony and the ecstasy of Renaissance Florence-the ferocious political scheming of the Medicis and the exquisite wonder of art and the church." - Tim Leach
"By embracing Leonardo da Vinci as a young artist grappling with his queerness, Florenzer tells a tender, passionate story that offers a bold new perspective on an iconic genius and the city that shaped him." - Tara Karr Roberts
"A sweeping, sure-footed saga... Florenzer contemplates human ambition as a source of conflict and a means to true transcendence and connection. An enthralling debut." - Laura Warrell
"Phil Melanson's gorgeous debut is a closely observed historical epic that captures the dawn of the modern era with the swaggering command of an old master. His characters are no dusty figures out of textbooks, either, but flesh-and-blood individuals who are equal parts delicate, calculating, and damaged." - Brian Castleberry
"Historical novels speak to me if and only if they leave me to reflect on their present-day resonances. Florenzer is one such work. To read this novel is to enjoy that abundance through the eyes of a young, unproven artist who will pay a heavy price for loving men in his life as in his work.... All this in gorgeous prose that captures the artist's eye like no other." - Maureen Freely
"A superb debut that encompasses both the agony and the ecstasy of Renaissance Florence-the ferocious political scheming of the Medicis and the exquisite wonder of art and the church." - Tim Leach
"By embracing Leonardo da Vinci as a young artist grappling with his queerness, Florenzer tells a tender, passionate story that offers a bold new perspective on an iconic genius and the city that shaped him." - Tara Karr Roberts
"A sweeping, sure-footed saga... Florenzer contemplates human ambition as a source of conflict and a means to true transcendence and connection. An enthralling debut." - Laura Warrell
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