My cover was different to this one, but I enjoyed the book none the less. The characters were well drawn, especially poor Bucino, and the plot interesting enough to hold the readers' interest. I enjoyed the detail of the time, 1527, and the setting which portrays Venice in all its smelly reality. I found the slant on characters with disabilities intriguing and unusual.
The story really belongs to Bucino the dwarf, and his foreshortened world is well imagined. The city and the crowd, described by him, take on a threatening quality. We see Fiammetta's life only through Bucino's eyes and in many ways hers is a sad life, too. Though her beauty is legendary, by time she reaches thirty she will be past her prime as a famous courtesan, and must have made enough riches to support herself into old age.Either that, or she must find a man rich enough to support her for the rest of her life. Love is a luxury she cannot afford.
The characters are likeable and resourceful, and Ms Dunant has caught their private idiosyncracies very well indeed.