Historical adventure – Globolibri.it

The Pillars of the Earth

Arnaldo Ageno — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:58:53 +0000

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett’s classic historical masterpiece.

The Map of Bones

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:04:55 +0000

A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land. No word, no story, no grave … Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, journeys to the Cape of Good Hope in search of her notorious cousin, Louise Reydon-Joubert, who vanished without trace half a century ago.

Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly six generations later, Isabelle Joubert Lepard follows in her footsteps, determined to investigate the lives of her ancestors – and to honour their memory – only to discover that the evils of the past, though hidden, are far from buried. And that her life, too, is under threat…

Three Fires

Arnaldo Ageno — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:36:15 +0000

In Three Fires, award-winning author Denise Mina re-imagines the ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’, a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century – inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola. Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the tail end of the fifteenth century. An anti-corruption campaigner his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted people towards sin.

These sermons led to the infamous ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ – a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, playing cards, musical instruments, make-up and mirrors, to paintings, tapestries and sculptures. Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, he was instrumental in their removal from power, and for a time became the puritanical leader of the city. After turning his attention to corruption in the entire Catholic Church, he was first excommunicated and then executed by a combination of hanging and being burnt at the stake.

Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story – drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day. In dramatising the life and last days of Savonarola she explores the downfall of the original architect of cancel culture and in the process explores the neverending tensions between wealth, inequality, and freedom of speech that so dominate our modern world.

In Three Fires, la pluripremiata autrice Denise Mina reinterpreta il “Rogo delle Vanità”, una serie di roghi accesi in tutta Firenze alla fine del XV secolo, ispirandosi al fanatico Girolamo Savonarola. Girolamo Savonarola era un frate domenicano vissuto a Firenze alla fine del XV secolo. Propugnatore della lotta alla corruzione, le sue prediche sull’inferno si trasformarono sempre più in invettive contro ogni lusso che inducesse al peccato.

Questi sermoni portarono al famigerato “Rogo delle Vanità”, una serie di roghi accesi in tutta Firenze per l’incenerimento di qualsiasi cosa, da libri, abiti stravaganti, carte da gioco, strumenti musicali, trucchi e specchi, a dipinti, arazzi e sculture. Inveendo contro il vizio e l’avarizia della famiglia Medici al potere, Savonarola fu determinante nella loro destituzione dal potere e, per un certo periodo, divenne il leader puritano della città. Dopo aver rivolto la sua attenzione alla corruzione dell’intera Chiesa cattolica, fu prima scomunicato e poi giustiziato con una combinazione di impiccagione e rogo.

Denise Mina offre una rivisitazione moderna di questa affascinante storia storica, tracciando parallelismi tra l’atmosfera febbrile della Firenze medievale e le guerre culturali odierne. Drammatizzando la vita e gli ultimi giorni di Savonarola, esplora la caduta del primo artefice della cultura della cancellazione e, nel frattempo, esplora le infinite tensioni tra ricchezza, disuguaglianza e libertà di parola che dominano il nostro mondo moderno.

Circle of Days

Arnaldo Ageno — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 13:15:14 +0000

From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT. Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves.
Her family lives in prosperity and offers Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community.

A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world.
But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.
A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILISATION Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders – and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare… Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.

Wolves of Winter

Arnaldo Ageno — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 07:50:49 +0000

AN ENDLESS WAR. A BLOOD-SOAKED BATTLEFIELD. A BAND OF BROTHERS

1347. Bruised and bloodied by an epic battle at Crécy, six soldiers of fortune known as the Essex Dogs pick through the wreckage of the fighting – and their own lives.

Now a new siege is beginning, and the Dogs are sent to attack the soaring walls of Calais. King Edward has vowed no Englishman will leave France til this city falls. To get home, they must survive a merciless winter in a lawless camp deadlier than any battlefield.

Obsessed with tracking down the vanished Captain, Loveday struggles to control his own men. Romford is haunted by the reappearance of a horrific figure from his past. And Scotsman is spiralling into a pit of drink, violence and self-pity.

The Dogs are being torn apart – but this war is far from over. It won’t be long before they lose more of their own…

From a vast siege camp built outside Calais’ walls, to pirate ships patrolling the harbour, and finally into the darkest corners of oligarchs’ houses inside a starving city, this captivating and darkly comic story brings the fourteenth century vividly to life. A searing tale about merchants, money and the medieval ‘deep state’, this is a must-read for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.