Costanza: 'Striking fictional retelling of this true history' - Sunday Times

'In Blackmore's striking fictional retelling of this true history, Costanza refuses to accept a fate as nothing more than a victim of male exploitation' SUNDAY TIMES

'Wonderful... This novel took over my life for the time I was buried in it. Powerful and deeply affecting' PATERSON JOSEPH

Rome, 1636: In the scorched city of Rome, the cobbled streets hum with gossip and sin...

Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife - until she meets Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famed sculptor and star of Roman society, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.

Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza's reputation is at stake. Meanwhile, Bernini has a dangerous desire: he wants to make Costanza immortal. He vows to possess her not just in body and soul, but also in marble.

When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza, she is exposed as his lover, marking the undoing of their affair - and the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.

Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza's story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise...