Book description
In 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella expel the Jews from Spain, six
year old Esther Sarfati finds herself travelling to Rome to join her
father, a successful banker who has helped his fellow Spaniard, Rodrigo
Borgia, finance his bid for the Papacy. Nine years later, as Pope
Alexander VI, he repays the favour by offering Esther a place in the
household of his daughter, Lucrezia, who is about to marry Alfonso
d'Este, heir to the Duchy of Ferrara. Against her own better judgement,
but in accordance with her father's wishes for her future, the re-named
Violante converts to Christianity and enters Lucrezia's service as
lady-in-waiting. Flattered by Lucrezia's favour, seduced by the
friendship of her cousin, Angela Borgia and swept off her feet by
Lucrezia's glamorous and dangerous brother, Cesare, she is drawn into a
web of intrigue and deceit which will test her heart to its utmost and
burden her with secrets she must carry to her grave. Set against the
glittering background of the court of Ferrara in the early sixteenth
century, this is the heart-breaking story of what happens to an innocent
abroad in the world of the Borgias.
