The Painted Room

This daring and delightful historical novel from Christensen (Azorno) boldly reimagines day-to-day life within the Gonzaga palace in Renaissance Italy. The focus is on the small details and soap-opera intrigues within the palace, which are as intricate as the detail in the frescoes by Andrea Mantegna that adorn the walls: “There is more life in the paintings than in all of these lively and rapturous spectators who simply put on airs because they are afraid of the pictures’ souls which is their own.” Among the deliciously surprising cast of characters is Prince Lodovico, Mantegna’s patron, who keeps a secret lover locked away in a garden, and his daughter Nana, a dwarf, who falls into a complicated and possibly miraculous marriage with Piero, Pope Pius II’s illegitimate unclaimed son. There’s also Marsilio, the royal secretary, whose diary makes up the first section of the novel, and whose love for Mantegna’s wife threatens to interfere with his duties and loyalties; and Bernadino, Mantegna’s young son, who imagines a life for himself within the vast and mysterious realms of his father’s paintings. Christensen, who died in 2009, casts her strange visions with stunning clarity. It’s as much a worthy introduction to the author as a treat for her fans. (May)