The Puffin

A dazzling tale of passion and resistance - told with heart, wit and feathers. Venice, 1817. A disfigured traitor. A revolutionary milliner. A sadistic assassin. A poet. And a puffin. When a fingerless nobleman seizes a puffin that arrives mysteriously at the Rialto Market, he triggers a cascade of events that will embroil all the central characters. The puffin’s fervid character and his matrimonial tragedies put the bird on a collision course with the worst and best of humanity.Alva the milliner fights for freedom from Venice’s Habsburg occupiers.Her brother Favaloro smuggles cod and sedition from the Lofoten Islands.Brother and sister join the revolutionary sect of the Carbonari, plotting to ransom a Habsburg princess. And both fall in love with Tommaso, who walks with a crutch but whose poetry overthrows hearts. Betrayals shatter all their plans and desires. Tommaso falls prey to a ruthless seducer. Alva must sacrifice herself to save Favaloro. As the Habsburgs send the poet to the