Perspectives

By: Laurent Binet, Sam Taylor - translator

Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge, John Sackville, Justin Avoth

Brought to you by Penguin.

Florence, New Year’s Day 1557. As dawn breaks, a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart.

Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden painting scandalously depicting Maria de Medici, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Florence, as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who is behind the painting? As the city erupts in chaos, Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation.

Letters fly back and forth carrying news of political plots and speculation about the killer’s identity – between Maria and her aunt Catherine de’ Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and her scheming agents in Florence; and between Vasari and his friend Michelangelo. Meanwhile, the Pope is banning books and branding works of art immoral. And the truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot centre of Europe.

Bursting with characters and colour, Perspectives is a mystery like no other that shows us Renaissance Florence as we’ve never seen it before – a dazzling, hugely entertaining novel of court machinations, murder and art.

© Laurent Binet 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critic reviews

One of the most successful French writers of his generation... a wild romp of a book that turns history on its head

Glorious, funny and profound

A bold and thrilling experiment in counter-factual history from a masterful storyteller

Characteristically ambitious, brilliant... Combining all the pleasure of a period romp with vital questions about our shared origin stories... a triumph

A hugely entertaining novel, taking delight in its own twists and turns

HHhH is a highly original piece of work, at once charming, moving, and gripping

Lively, earthy, experimental, ambitious, clever and endlessly entertaining... Smart, witty, direct, cool

A very well-done [thriller]…with surprising twists and a satisfying denouement… Historical fiction doesn’t get much better than this

A brainy page-turner… Witty and engrossing

A dazzling romp