Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato
A book review
The Daughter of Siena is a thriller crafted around the rule of Violante Beatrice, the widow of a Medici prince, as Governor of the Italian city of Siena in the early eighteenth century. Then as now, Siena was a colorful place, divided into numerous contrade, city divisions with traditional rivalries and alliances which erupted picturesquely into the open during the Palio. In this horse race, still celebrated twice every summer, many of the the contrade sponsor riders and compete with a passion worthy of their medieval forebears.
The central character, Pia Tolomei, is named after an ancestress portrayed in Dante's Divine Comedy whose disastrous fate she would prefer to avoid. Her father, a leader of the Owl Contrada, forces her to wed the sadistic son of a leader of the Eagle Contrada. She begins to realize she is a pawn in a complicated scheme of "The Nine," a secretive group of contrada representatives plotting to wrest control of Siena from the benign but weak Violante during the second Palio of the season. Violante, vaguely aware of undercurrents of discontent and disorder in her city, determines to become a better Governor while contemplating the fresco of the "Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government" in her residence, the Palazzo Publicco. A handsome horseman's selfless act during the season's first Palio gets the story going, and from there on, the ride is fast and furious, full of startling twists and turns.
The primary characters invite love or hate on first appearance, and readers will most enjoy the breathless pace of The Daughter of Siena if they don't mind suspending credibility as coincidences mount. For anyone contemplating a trip to Siena, it offers a panoramic introduction to the culture and traditions of this fascinating city. (2011; 387 pages, including a Historical Note on the later fates of the historical characters)