Palace of the Drowned: A Novel
Bridging the gap between genre and literary fiction with enormous skill and agility, Mangan has again given us an electrifying yarn full of menace and atmosphere. With a mesmeric sense of place, Palace of the Drowned is a fully transportive experience.
Description
From the bestselling author of Tangerine, a "taut and mesmerizing follow up...voluptuously atmospheric and surefooted at every turn” (Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark).
It’s 1966 and Frankie Croy retreats to her friend’s vacant palazzo in Venice. Years have passed since the initial success of Frankie’s debut novel and she has spent her career trying to live up to the expectations. Now, after a particularly scathing review of her most recent work, alongside a very public breakdown, she needs to recharge and get re-inspired.
Then Gilly appears. A precocious young admirer eager to make friends, Gilly seems determined to insinuate herself into Frankie’s solitary life. But there’s something about the young woman that gives Frankie pause. How much of what Gilly tells her is the truth? As a series of lies and revelations emerge, the lives of these two women will be tragically altered as the catastrophic 1966 flooding of Venice ravages the city.
Suspenseful and transporting, Christine Mangan's Palace of the Drowned brings the mystery of Venice to life while delivering a twisted tale of ambition and human nature.
Praise for Palace of the Drowned: A Novel
“A lush, malice-infused mystery.” —The New York Times
“Lush, evocative. . . . When you learn the truth at the end, you’ll want to go back and rethink everything you read before.” —New York Times Book Review
“A perceptive character study. Mangan’s accomplished second novel spins on low-boil psychological underpinnings, with a threat of violence; Palace of the Drowned shrewdly echoes Patricia Highsmith, Gaslight, and All About Eve.” —Oline Cogdill, Shelf Awareness
“Atmospheric, twisting, and full of mystery, Palace of the Drowned is a darkly delightful trip of a book.” —Refinery29
“A great psychological thriller with a very unexpected ending.” —Palm Beach Daily News
“Mangan’s writing is crisp at one turn and slippery at the next. . . . The result is a page-turning thriller with a setting just as well imagined as the characters who inhabit it.” —Veranda Magazine
“With atmospheric writing and a literary bent, Palace of the Drowned is as much an exploration of the use of language and a study of the artistic experience, as it is a revelation of plot.” —The New York Journal of Books
"Mangan’s taut plot consists of more satisfying turns than there are calli and campi in the impermanent, unknowable City of Bridges itself." —The New Yorker
“Voluptuously atmospheric and surefooted at every turn, Palace of the Drowned more than delivers on the promise of Mangan’s debut, and firmly establishes her as a writer of consequence.” —Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark
Veranda Magazine Book Club Pick for June
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