The Venetian's Wife Book

Nick Bantock's illustrated novel, The Venetian's Wife, is part love story, part mystery, and part ghostly tale—and an altogether bewitching brew of sensuality and lost treasures. Thoroughly bored with her job at the local museum, Sarah heads to the gallery to take another look at that new drawing, the one she can't stop thinking about, the one of the Hindu god Shiva, who dances...That's when it all begins. The next day, an e-mail message brings her a job offer: to find the few remaining pieces of a 15th-century adventurer's renowned collection of Indian sculptures. Her employer, curiously, wishes to communicate only by computer. She has no idea who he is or why he wants her. But other mysteries soon preoccupy her, such as the meaning of an enigmatic illuminated manuscript—and the sensual transformation that seems to be overtaking her. Through her quirkily decorated diary and the artful e-mail exchanges between Sara and her mentor, Nick Bantock has conjured up a richly illustrated tale of a relentless quest, an amorous legacy, and the resonating power of art—a lush, romantic adventure of the soul that tantalizes the reader to the last line.

Publishers Weekly

The subtitle of this oversized, lavishly illustrated volume confirms that we are once again in the kind of quasi-mythical kingdom that provided the setting for writer and illustrator Bantok's bestselling Griffin and Sabine series. Phrased thusly: "A Strangely Sensual Tale of a Renaissance Explorer, a Computer, and a Metamorphosis,'' the subtitle also suggests a major difference in this work: the traditional epistolary tools (letters and postcards) that were the vehicles of communication in the trilogy are here replaced by e-mail messages exchanged by the two protagonists. Fans of the trilogy may not be disappointed that Bantok repeats himself in another respect, however. The situation that bridges time and place is nearly identical to that of the previous books; that is, one of the protagonists is contacted by the other, whom she does not know, but who seems to be able to read her mind. In this case, San Francisco art conservator Sara Wolfe, who is fascinated by a drawing of the Indian god Shiva hanging on the walls of the museum where she works, receives an e-mail message from one N. Conti, who somehow is aware of her obsession and offers her a job traveling around the world assembling Indian art for his collection. The narrative proceeds via these e-mail messages and through the protagonists' entries into their computer journals. In this story, however, Sara and Conti are not fated to be lovers. The latter, in fact, is the ghost of a real-life figure, wealthy Renaissance merchant and indefatigable traveler Niccolo Dei Conti, who died in 1469 and needs Sara's help in order to be reunited with his wife, Yasod, in the afterlife. And Sara, with Conti's help, discovers her own destined mate, a colleague called Marco (surely Bantok's humorous reference to another fabled traveler). The mysteries around which the plot hingeConti's identity and his ultimate purpose in reassembling his collectionare suspensefully maintained, augmented by Bantok's intensely colorful and often sensual illustrations. If Bantok has essentially chosen to repeat his winning formula, he has again produced another handsome volume that readers can enjoy. Author tour. (Oct.)