Format:
Book
Title:
The city of falling angels / John Berendt.
Author:
Berendt, John, 1939-
Call Number:
945.31 Berendt
Publisher, Date:
New York : Penguin Books, 2006.
Description:
414 pages : map ; 25 cm
Summary:
Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, marble ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are underway. This book opens in 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house, a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective--inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city--while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. He introduces us to a rich cast of characters, Venetian and expatriate, in a tale full of atmosphere and surprise which reveals a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif, adding elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense.--From publisher description.
Subjects:
Teatro La Fenice -- Fire, 1996.
Venice (Italy) -- Description and travel.
Venice (Italy) -- Social life and customs.
True crime.
Contents:
The Venice effect -- An evening in Venice -- Dust & ashes -- At water level -- Sleepwalking -- Slow burn -- The rat man of Treviso -- Glass warfare -- Expatriates: the first family -- The last canto -- For a couple of bucks -- Opera buffa -- Beware of falling angels -- The man who loved others -- The inferno revisited -- Open house.
ISBN:
9780143036937
0143036939
9781594200588
1594200580