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Three Fires

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Three Fires

By: Denise Mina
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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In Three Fires, award-winning author Denise Mina re-imagines the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century - inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola.

Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the tail end of the fifteenth century. An anti-corruption campaigner his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted people towards sin. These sermons led to the infamous ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ - a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, playing cards, musical instruments, make-up and mirrors, to paintings, tapestries and sculptures.

Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, he was instrumental in their removal from power, and for a time became the puritanical leader of the city. After turning his attention to corruption in the entire Catholic Church, he was first excommunicated and then executed by a combination of hanging and being burnt at the stake.

Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story - drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day. In dramatising the life and last days of Savonarola she explores the downfall of the original architect of cancel culture and in the process explores the neverending tensions between wealth, inequality, and freedom of speech that so dominate our modern world.©2023 Denise Mina (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political Renaissance Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction Espionage
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enjoyed this very much. Could easily have been longer - more on the bonfire of the vanities in particular - but appreciated i being short and sweet. so many authors draw out a book too long, it feels good to be left wanting more

well researched + readable

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What’s to love? I love Denise Mina’s willingness to write shorts; and to pick specifics from history. Her writing is like the early rooms in an art gallery full of huge classics - animated, blooded, tortured, ghastly and in this case ablaze - but in a good way. This book is an excellent example, and maybe deserves five stars. The reason I’ve only given it four is that it contains some jarring anacronisms, e.g.: ‘double down’; ‘make some changes round here’ and even a reference to San Francisco (seeming to mean the city in California)! Given Denise Mina’s talent and accomplishments we have to imagine these are deliberate - but what are they for? They tend to make her outstanding writing sound like an 18+ Horrible Histories.

Ghastly - in a Good Way

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