I got this book from the 'Pay Less Books' warehouse sales some time back. It's 2nd hand & slightly worn, but oklar for the price I'm paying (I think it was in the 6 for RM10 / 12 for RM10 pile or something...). To be honest I was a bit skeptical abt the book because there were a number of books tht I bought fr unknown authors (or at least unknown to me), in such book warehouse sale & they were rather disappointing despite the "intriguing" title, interesting synopsis & excellent recommendations from various news agency / book critic. So this book was on my shelf for quite some time before I finally pick it up to read - I really need to clear my growing unread books cos' am replenishing faster than I read them.
Anyway, this book revolves around Margot as she leaves her home (& not to mention her grief since her mother died several years ago) to fly to Florence, Italy - to volunteer her help to restore books that were damaged from the flood (she's a book restorer). Many adventures along the way, including going down memory lane when she used to go around places in Italy with her mum, a string of affairs - ending in various degree of heartbreaks (or relief), staying in a Catholic convent to restore their library & still not understanding why a woman would want to be "imprisoned" in a nunnery and being entrusted with a 16th century book of 16 erotic poems by Arentino & pornographic etchings for each of the poem. It was bounded with a religious christian book - naturally it's at the back of the book - so the cover & first 100+ pages are clean & proper, but horrors of horrors (at least to the virgin nuns) at the back (though only 16-pages).
She was entrusted by the principal of the convent - Madre Bandessa to sell this book (said to be the only 1 left in the world because all known copies were destroyed by the Vatican at the time it was first distributed). Said to be the European version of the Karma-Sutra, of course she tried some of the "positions" in the book. Anyway, it did not went into the details of the sex scenes / the pornographic etchings itself (some, but not all) - this book turn out to be a good read on books / frescos / art restorations & the adventures of Margot after getting the book & trying to dispose it at the highest price while dodging the sharp eyes & ears of the Bishop (who's trying to regain control over the nunnery; which is currently in the capable hands of Madre Bandessa - Catholic Church politics it seems). It all culminates to how successfully the sale was pulled off, the money collected & deposited in a trust fund for the convent so tht no one else (especially the Bishop) can touch it.
A good & interesting read. Just wish I know some more Italian to understand some of the phrases written in tht language.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment