What worked in this book? EVERYTHING!!!! I have grown to love books told through various characters POV. The tale of Rapunzel has been brought to life in a book full of black magic, jealousy, greed, love, desire, and redemption. One day, a young man does.Īward-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman. Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens.Īfter Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl.

The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of loveįrench novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs.

A Library Journal Best Book of 2014: Historical Fiction

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth