In Lucia's Eyes

Book excerpt: Based on a woman who appeared briefly in Casanova’s legendary diaries, here is an elegant and moving story of love denied and transformed from the author of The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi. • "Intelligent, poignant, and yes, sexy.... A literary page-turner for those with a brain as well as a heart." —San Francisco Chronicle Lucia works as a servant girl in Italy and is engaged to be married. But after the pox disfigures her face, she flees in shame without telling her lover. Years later, as a reknowned Amsterdam courtesan who never goes out without her veil, Lucia is at the theater when she recognizes her long-lost fiancé, Giacomo Casanova; and she cannot resist the opportunity to encounter him again. Based on a woman who appeared briefly in Casanova’s legendary diaries, Lucia emerges as a brilliant woman who becomes every bit his match. In Lucia’s Eyes is an elegant and moving story of love denied and transformed.