THE MIRACLES OF PRATO by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz
Published by Wm. Morrow, February 2009 Celebrating the art, passion, and
culture of fifteenth-century Italy, THE MIRACLES OF PRATO brings to life the
romantic story of the famed painter-monk Fra Filippo Lippi and the beautiful
Florentine nun who was to become his muse, lover, and the mother of his
children.
The novel opens with a child born in secrecy at the Convent Santa Margherita
and taken from his mother by the head of the church’s Augustinian order. The
infant’s fate and that of his mother hang in the balance. Yet their story
soon extends far beyond the convent, to the greatest power centers of
Florence and Rome.
Spiritual and sensual, adventurous and gripping, this epic story takes
readers from the quiet cloistered life of Lucrezia Buti to the handsomely
appointed chambers of the powerful Cosimo de Medici, from the birthing bed
of a privileged Renaissance lady to the healing garden of a wizened midwife,
from Fra Lippi's private struggles to his public humiliations. Atmospheric
and scrupulously researched, the novel conjures up a fascinating time and
place, building on historical records to create a fictional account of a man
so talented that both his patrons and the church patriarchs become pawns in
a controversial struggle to keep him and his muse together. 
“The Miracles of Prato is a time machine, taking the reader back
to the height of the Italian Renaissance, revealing a world of childlike
innocence and illicit passion, harsh injustice and saintly miracles, and
wafting around it all like rare perfume, the creation of art for the glory
of God.”
-- Eleanor Herman, author of Mistress of the Vatican
Like Fra Filippo's paintings, this love story, set in one of the most
intriguing historical periods, is suffused with clear, warm color and fine
attention to detail.
-- Debra Dean, author of Madonnas of Leningrad
With painterly language and writerly skill the authors of The Miracles
of Prato draw the reader into the lush, sensory web of Italian Renaissance
color and forbidden love. An age-old story of the triumph of the human heart
over rules, money and propriety is set against a back drop of artistic
passion, overwhelming talent and stunning beauty. This is an enchanting
story and will carry the reader away.
-- Judith Healey, author of Canterbury Papers
“In this richly imagined novel, Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz weave
fact and fiction into a luminous tapestry. Inspired by the true story of the
artist Fra Filippo Lippi and the woman whose beauty inspired his most famous
works, The Miracles of Prato is a captivating story of artistic vision, dark
betrayal, and forbidden yearnings."
-- Christina Baker Kline, author of The Way Life Should Be
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