A Splendid Sin

Book Author Alana Bolton Cooke
Rights Available World Excl NZ

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarrotti has risen into Rome’s artistic elite, and the ailing Pope Clement commissions him to paint The Last Judgement.

When the artist apprentices Tomasso, a young nobleman, to be his muse and inspiration, Michelangelo must contend with the conflict between his growing love and his fear of eternal damnation.

Can Michelangelo hide his feelings from both the church and himself, or will The Last Judgement destroy him?

‘A Splendid Sin’ is a love story, fiction based on fact. It describes the love of an older man for a younger man and how this love helps create a great work of art on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. It is also the story of genius expressed in artworks breaking boundaries and pushing art into a new form (Mannerism).

About the Author
After working for many years as a registered nurse in New Zealand and England, Alana went to University as a mature student and received an MA in English. In 2010 she undertook the Master of Creative Writing at AUT; her thesis was an historical novel based on the First Duke of Marlborough’s military exploits in the early 1700’s. She has had articles printed in the ‘New Zealand Woman’s Weekly’ and in the Christchurch ‘Press’ and a short story printed in ‘The Listener’. ‘A Splendid Sin’ is her first published novel.