ARTS AND WONDERS follows Tommaso Grilli, dwarf and talented art forger, from his unhappy beginnings in Renaissance Florence, via a life of crime in Prague, to the minor German Dukedom of Felsengrunde. There, as curator and (more often than not) 'creator' of a fantastical Library of Arts, he makes himself indispensable to the impoverished duke - with whom his own fortunes will be murderously linked.
Set in the late Renaissance in the time of the Hundred Years War, this is a rich and sweeping novel, peopled with werewolves, thieves and emperors, from the acclaimed author of "Ship Of Fools".
Although this book takes you through a dazzling hoop-la of European cities and curious historical characters, it is the language that is most impressive and rich. Sentences are ribbed with astonishing metaphor. Research is lost in poetry and colour. Above all, Norminton had fun writing this book, expressing himself with great flamboyance and feeling for his characters and the worlds they inhabit ... It is the kind of book you walk into a bookshop to find and so often don't - it is artistic and wondrous.
