In The Name of the Family

Dunant has made completely her own the story of Italy’s most infamous ruling family. Retaining the knack for plotting and pacing from the crime novels that began her career, she depicts history in a way that we can see, hear and smell … Dunant’s Italian novels are an enthralling education (Mark Lawson Guardian)

For the last 14 years, her historical fiction has been coming close to doing for Renaissance Italy what Hilary Mantel has done for Tudor England. So deeply does she burrow into the past that her readers are able to imagine it almost as clearly as if it were the present, reinvesting it with that knifeedge uncertainty with which we ourselves imagine the future … This is Dunant’s fifth Renaissance novel, and like the rest sparkles with the kind of details that fires the imagination (Herald)

Sarah Dunant’s blood-drenched tale about the Borgias is gripping … Dunant’s poetic style raises the novel above titillating gossip, and her striking imagery renders it as rich as a Pinturicchio fresco (Scotsman)

Open it, and become utterly swept up; then, spend the next three days on Wikipedia googling Every. Single. Character. (Emerald Street)

Doing what Hilary Mantel did for Thomas Cromwell, Sarah Dunant tackles the lives of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Borgias… with total ease. Open it, and become utterly swept up, then, spend the next three days on Wikipedia googling Every. Single. Character. (Emerald Street) - Guardian