The Birth of Venus

I was wondering if anyone else has read this. It's been a while since I read it (read it twice) and I haven't talked about it for a while. But it's one of my favorite books.

Takes place in 15th century Florence... Renaissance... young girl wants to be an artist. A lot of terrible things happen.

I love Sarah Dunant's writing, and I read one other book of hers: In the Company of the Courtesan. I really didn't like that one all that much, at least not compared to the BoV. The story was really dreary.