Press Reviews

• Stephanie Merritt aka S. J. Parris

  Observer

  The pre-eminent novelist of Renaissance Italy . . . Blood & Beauty is a high-class, colourful Renaissance soap opera, and one that will leave readers itching for the next instalment

• Lucy Atkins

  Sunday Times

  This is Dunant's fourth Renaissance novel and she is in her element . . . She brings 15th century Italian cities vividly alive - the lawlessness and violence, the diseased and damaged bodies, the debauchery and corpses . . . an intelligent and passionate book

• Viv Groskop

  The Times

  Wonderful . . . from a master of historical fiction . . . an ambitious, thrilling read from a novelist at the height of her powers. The Borgias leap from the page . . . the book offers total immersion in an alien Rome . . . A comparison to Wolf Hall is not out of place here

• Daily Mail

  Gripping . . . a must read for anyone interested in the period, and for those who simply enjoy intelligent historical fiction

• Christobel Kent

  Guardian

  Hugely enjoyable . . . From the outset Dunant takes possession of her sprawling, unwieldy material. She sets up a resonant dynamic between the political - the dangerous machinations of the papal conclave - and the domestic . . . it is in her asides that Dunant triumphs, like all good novelists: in a deft, shrewd, precise use of killer detail . . . it is difficult not to look forward to the next ride on an old-fashioned rollercoaster of a story

• Mary Beard

  A wonderful novel - taking you deep into the world of Renaissance passion and the Renaissance papacy. Part of me was happily lost in the time travel, part of me repeatedly struck by how vividly ancient Rome met modern Rome, and how the city of history came to life

• Paula McLain, author of THE PARIS WIFE

  What a marvellous feast of vices and desires Sarah Dunant gives us in Blood & Beauty - lust and ambition, passion and power, destiny born and bought. The Borgias are arguably the most intriguing and ruthless family in all of history, and Dunant brings them ravishingly, bristlingly to life. Absolutely convincing on every page. I was enthralled

• Amanda Foreman

  Blood & Beauty is a fascinating read full of vivid detail and human pathos. Dunant opens a window into the extraordinary machinations and skullduggery of the Borgias and provides us with a richness of description that beautifully locates them within their own time

• People

  The Machiavellian atmosphere - hedonism, lust, political intrigue - is magnetic . . . Readers won't want the era of Borgia rule to end

• New York Times

  Just as Mantel humanized and, to an extent, rehabilitated the brilliant, villainous Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII, Dunant transforms the blackhearted Borgias and the conniving courtiers and cardinals of Renaissance Europe into fully rounded characters, brimming with life and lust . . . In Blood and Beauty, Dunant illuminates the darkened narrative of the Borgia record, reviving stained glass with fresh light, refreshing the brilliance of the gold and blue panes history has marred without dulling the blood-red that glows everywhere around them

• Miami Herald

  Like Hilary Mantel with her Cromwell trilogy, Dunant has scaled new heights by refashioning mythic figures according to contemporary literary taste. This intellectually satisfying historical saga, which offers blood and beauty certainly, but brains too, is surely the best thing she has done to date

• Seattle Times

  Compelling female players have been a characteristic of Dunant's earlier novels, and this new offering is no exception. . . . The members of this close-knit family emerge as dynamic characters, flawed but sympathetic, filled with fear and longing

• BookPage

  Dazzling . . . a triumph on an epic scale . . . filled with rich detail and page-turning drama

• Mary Beard

  A wonderful novel - taking you deep into the world of Renaissance passion and the Renaissance papacy. Part of me was happily lost in the time travel, part of me repeatedly struck by how vividly ancient Rome met modern Rome, and how the city of history came to life.

• Amanda Foreman

  Blood & Beauty is a fascinating read full of vivid detail and human pathos. Dunant opens a window into the extraordinary machinations and skullduggery of the Borgias and provides us with a richness of description that beautifully locates them within their own time.

• Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

  What a marvellous feast of vices and desires Sarah Dunant gives us in Blood & Beauty - lust and ambition, passion and power, destiny born and bought. The Borgias are arguably the most intriguing and ruthless family in all of history, and Dunant brings them ravishingly, bristlingly to life. Absolutely convincing on every page. I was enthralled.

• The Times

  An ambitious, thrilling read from a novelist at the height of her powers. The Borgias leap from the page . . . the book offers total immersion in an alien Rome