From Nicole Galland, acclaimed author of The Fool's Tale, comes a marvelous evocation of a distant time and place . and a breathtaking reexamination of one of literature's classic villainsFrom earliest childhood, the precocious boy called Iago had inconvenient tendencies toward honestya failing that made him an embarrassment to his family and an outcast in the corrupt culture of glittering Renaissance Venice. Embracing military life as an antidote to the frippery of Venetian society, Iago won the love of the beautiful Emilia and the regard of Venice's revered General Othello. After years of abuse and rejection, Iago was poised to achieve everything he had ever fought for and dreamed of .But a cascade of unexpected deceptions propels him on a catastrophic quest for righteous vengeance, contorting his moral compass until he has betrayed his closest friends and family, and sealed his own fate as one of the most notorious villains of all time.Inspired by William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Othelloa timeless tale of friendship and treachery, love and jealousyGalland's I, Iago sheds fascinating new light on a complex soul, and on the conditions and fateful events that helped to create a monster.