The combination of Vivaldi, Venice and a stream-of-consciousness coming of age story, make this a far from easy but most absorbing read. Take it slowly and enjoy every moment.
Extract
Lady Mother, I'm asking your forgiveness, I don't have the right to treat you like this. I know nothing about you. I don't know why you abandoned me here, sixteen years ago. Perhaps you died when I was being born, you died in childbirth and someone brought me here rather than leaving me to die beside you, or rather to entrust me to some other family where I would have been considered a lower-rank daughter, they would have treated me as a servant, a slave.
