The Marriage Portrait

Shortlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction 2023A Reeses Bookclub December Pick (2022)An Instant Sunday Times, New York Times and Irish Times Bestseller (August 2022)A Guardian and LitHub Book of the Year (December 2022)Every bit as evocative and spellbinding as Hamnet. OFarrell, thank God, just seems to be getting better and better i newspaperHer narrative enchantment will wrest suspense and surprise out of a death foretold Financial TimesIngenious, inventive, humane, wry, truthful . . . better than her last novel ScotsmanFinely written and vividly imagined GuardianIn OFarrells hands, historical detail comes alive SpectatorWinter, 1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florences grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival.The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.