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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jun 2004, 430 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2005, 448 pages
Both a mesmerizing thriller and a passionate exploration of the power of truth to effect reconciliation and restore faith.
La Muta, "the mute woman." Amidst a country rocked by scandal and
corruption, inhabitants of the idyllic city of Urbino, Italy, birthplace of
Raphael, are more concerned with a sudden outbreak of miracles than with
politics. But what unspeakable secret lies hidden in Raphael's enigmatic
painting? Its restoration will drive a living mute to a shocking act of
violence and spark an investigation into a nearly forgotten war crime and a
series of events that will shatter the silence gripping this community
forever.
Both a mesmerizing thriller and a passionate exploration of the power of
truth to effect reconciliation and restore faith, Waking Raphael spins a
tantalizing web of silence and lies to recreate an Italy where the romantic
and the violent, the comic and the tragic, are spellbindingly interwoven.
MIRACLE NUMBER 1
A Galilean Transformation
‘You see how he glances furtively over one shoulder, as if . . . as if he
were escaping from the scene of a crime.’ It was Charlotte’s first
rehearsal to camera, and the unforgiving television lights revealed her to be
more nervous than the young man in the portrait she was describing. ‘But is
he the perpetrator of the crime or just a witness?’ she went on. ‘I
believe the artist wants us to ask such questions, feel ourselves part of the
plot. The picture, you see, represents a window into another space and time–in
this case the fifteenth century. Everything in the painting is designed to
reinforce the fiction that this young man, with one hand apparently on the
picture frame, is about to vault from his world into ours.’
‘To me he looks like Paolo,’ said Donna. ‘The same sexy mouth.’
Ignoring the girl, Charlotte continued, ‘Another example ...
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