Florenzer

Leonardo da Vinci, un chico bastardo de doce años, deja el campo de la Toscana para unirse a su padre en Florencia con el sueño de convertirse en pintor. Francesco Salviati, también bastardo y repudiado por su piel oscura, dedica su vida a la Iglesia Católica con grandes esperanzas de salvación. Por encima de ellos está Lorenzo de Medici, apenas un simple hombre, aunque muy pronto será el patriarca del banco más rico e influyente del mundo. Cada uno, de diferentes maneras, es hijo de Florencia. Cada uno, cuando se crucen sus caminos, derramará sangre en las calles de Florencia. Este drama histórico sobrecogedor, explora la peligrosa búsqueda de logros artísticos y políticos, especialmente en una época donde los florenzers, u hombres homosexuales como Leonardo, eran perseguidos con frecuencia. Explorando los orígenes de uno de los artistas más importantes de la historia y la ciudad que lo vio en quien es, Florenzer presenta una nueva y fascinante voz en la ficción.

Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors-and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets. Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici’s bank exacerbates the city’s staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe’s preeminent destination for gay men-or “florenzers,” as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter’s apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation-but risk lingers around every corner. Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama unfolds the machinations of a city on the brink of a new age as it contends with the tensions between public and private lives, the entanglement of erotic and creative impulse, the sacrifices of the determinedly pious, and the risks of fantastic power. With his “unforgettable characters and an ever-twisting plot, all told with style, skill, and wry black humor” (Tim Leach), Phil Melanson emerges as an enthralling new voice in contemporary fiction.