Book of the Week: The Legacy of Grazia dei Rossi (Anansi) by Jacqueline Park

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Jacqueline Park’s popular page-turner The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi (Simon and Schuster, 1997) was a huge, complex and utterly compelling saga about the lives and loves of a prominent Jewish family in Renaissance Italy. Now, in the long-awaited sequel, The Legacy of Grazia Dei Rossi (Anansi), the story picks up in 16th-century Istanbul, where Grazia’s husband, Judah (in the first book, physician to the pope) now works for Suleiman the Magnificent. With the same meticulous historical research, the book follows young Danilo, Grazia’s son, as he enters into a forbidden and potentially dangerous affair with the Sultan’s daughter. (Yes, it seems he’s inherited his mother’s inclination for impossible romance.) Put on the kettle and settle in for a tantalizing look at life and love in the Ottoman Court.
The Legacy of Grazia Dei Rossi is available at Indigo and Amazon.ca

 Jacqueline Park, who turns 90 in March, is still putting pen to paper and hard at work on the third book of the series. She lives in Toronto.