Welcome to our March 2023 Book Club selection: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell. Pick up the novel to enjoy, and we will discuss it on our March Book Club Chat on Tuesday, March 28th, at 8 pm EST. ⁠

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Lucrezia is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding, the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father is just as quick to accept on her behalf.

Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband, Alfonso. Is he the aesthete happiest in the company of artists or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. In Renaissance Italy, this is an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.