FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW AND THE SEA Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. Winter, 1899. As the new century approaches, English hack-writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn's plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt. As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice at Palazzo Dioscuri - the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo - a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn's already frayed nerves: is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind? 'A marvellous and rewarding novelist . He is a magician, really.' THE SCOTSMAN 'Banville has a grim gift of seeing people's souls.' DON DeLILLO 'The most eminent innovator in Irish fiction of the last 50 years.

' IRISH TIMES 'One of my favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG 'Banville writes prose of such luscious elegance.' NEW YORK TIMES.