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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A violent attack; art theft investigation; the flooding Venice setting
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild content
Substance Use
Barely any
Mild content
Emotional Intensity
Some
The specific vulnerability of a city that is perpetually under water; art theft as a crime that depends on the same institutional corruption that protects every other kind
What this book is about
Venice's acqua alta — the seasonal flooding that fills the city's streets — provides both atmosphere and metaphor for the fifth Brunetti novel. A musicologist friend of Paola's (Brunetti's wife) is attacked, and the investigation reaches into the world of art theft and the specific corruption that has always surrounded the movement of valuable objects through Italy. Donna Leon's Venice is inseparable from its weather and its water, and the flooding acqua alta is used here as a physical expression of the murky institutional waters Brunetti is always wading through.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
fifth Brunetti novel by Donna Leon; acqua alta Venice setting
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