Casanova in Bolzano

Another rediscovered masterpiece from the Hungarian novelist whose Embersbecame an international bestsellera sensuous, suspenseful, aphoristic novel about the worlds most notorious seducer and the encounter that changes him forever. In 1756 Giacomo Casanova escapes from a Venetian prison and resurfaces in the Italian village of Bolzano. Here he receives an unwelcome visitor: the aging but still fearsome Duke of Parma, who years before had defeated Casanova in a duel over a ravishing girl named Francesca and spared his life on condition that he never see her again.

Now the duke has taken Francesca as his wifeand intercepted a love letter from her to his old rival. Rather than kill Casanova on the spot, he makes him a startling offer, one that is logical, perverse, and irresistible. Turning an historical episode into a dazzling fictional exploration of the clasp of desire and death, Casanova in Bolzanois further proof that Sndor Mrai is one of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century.