In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi's Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi—known as the Red Priest of Venice—is maestro and composer. Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della Pietà as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from. Her quest takes her beyond the cloister walls into the complex tapestry of Venetian society; from the impoverished alleyways of the Jewish Ghetto to a masked ball in the company of a king; from the passionate communal life of adolescent girls competing for their maestro's favor to the larger-than-life world of music and spectacle that kept the citizens of a dying republic in thrall. In this world, where for fully half the year the entire city is masked and cloaked in the anonymity of Carnival, nothing is as it appears to be. A virtuoso performance in the tradition of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vivaldi's Virgins is a fascinating glimpse inside the source of Vivaldi's musical legacy, interwoven with the gripping story of a remarkable young woman's coming-of-age in a deliciously evocative time and place. Adult/High School—The 18th-century world of Venice and famed composer Antonio Vivaldi come to life in this novel. The story depicts the imagined life of the real Anna Maria dal Violin, an orphan at the Ospedale della Pietà who was his renowned pupil. Through Anna Maria's eyes, Quick introduces readers to the dazzling world of Venetian society, but she does not flinch from portraying the darker side of a city in decline. Anna Maria experiences a life of ambiguity. As an orphan living a cloistered and regimented existence, she wants desperately to uncover the mystery of her mother's true identity. As she blossoms into a young woman and an amazing talent, her private pain drives her to risk all in order to discover who she really is and where she came from. Like Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring (HarperCollins, 1999), this book has great appeal, especially for teenage girls; it also offers much to those readers interested in the composer and his influence on Venetian society in the early 1700s.— Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, where Antonio Vivaldi was employed from 1703 to 1740, is the setting for this novel narrated by Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the orphan musicians known as the figlie de coro . Foundlings with musical talent received special training, and their concerts were a popular and lucrative attraction, the money going to care for all the children left as infants in the niche in the Church of the Pieta's wall. The adolescent Anna Maria knows nothing about her parentage, but a sympathetic nun encourages her to write letters to her mother all the same, and these letters alternate with an older Anna Maria's recollections to move the story along. Quick has chosen a fascinating backdrop. Her novel shimmers with details about music and Venice in the early 1700s, as well as life within the Pieta. Plotting is less successful, but readers won't mind. Read with Girl with a Pearl Earring (2001) and The Birth of Venus (2004). Mary Ellen Quinn Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Quick has chosen a fascinating backdrop. Her novel shimmers.…This is a good read.” - Booklist “Quick’s descriptions of Anna Maria’s violin playing soar off the page, evoking Vivaldi’s own compositions.” - San Francisco Chronicle “Quick has chosen a fascinating backdrop. Her novel shimmers with details. . . . This is a good read alike to match with Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Birth of Venus.” - Booklist “A genuine successor to [Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring].” - Houston Chronicle In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi's Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi—known as the Red Priest of Venice—is maestro and composer. Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della Pietà as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from. Her quest takes her beyond the cloister walls into the complex tapestry of Venetian society; from the impoverished alleyways of the Jewish Ghetto to a masked ball in the company of a king; from the passionate communal life of adolescent girls competing for their maestro's favor to the larger-than-life world of music and spectacle that kept the citizens of a dyin