(Translated from the Spanish by Paul Antill)

JACKET NOTES:  Juan Manuel de Prada's tantalizing and hypnotic tale of intrigue, murder, love, and betrayal was awarded the prestigious Planeta Prize when it was first published in Spanish.

Alejandro Ballesteros, a young Spanish art historian, arrives in a damp and wintry Venice to study Giorgione's The Tempest, the magnificent painting that has obsessed him for years. But on his first night in the quintessentially enigmatic city Alejandro witnesses a shocking murder and is quickly sucked into a dangerous web of deceit. The murder victim is Fabio Valenzin, a notorious forger and trafficker in stolen works of art who, it turns out, has close ties not only with Gilberto Gabetti, the director of the Accademia where The Tempest hangs, but also with Gabetti's enchanting daughter, Chiara.

Exploring the boundaries between art and reality, intellect and passion, The Tempest is a mesmerizing and gripping novel by one of Spain's most gifted novelists-The New Yorker recently hailed de Prada as "one of the most promising young writers in Europe."

In a tale with all the complex twists and turns of Venice itself, The Tempest is a marvelously complex, erotic, and atmospheric mystery.
(© The Overlook Press)