Lorenzo’s Daggers

When a high school student mysteriously disappears, history teacher Prester John travels back in time to the Italian Renaissance to find him in this smart, suspenseful adventure story. The novel alternates between modern-day New England and 15th-century Italy; it begins in 1478 Florence with an attempted coup, a violent power grab by the Pazzi clan against the ruling Medici family. The story then time-shifts to a prep school history class, when teacher John is showing his students his antique daggers, and surly student Kirk Renzo bolts out a window with one. John gives chase, but Renzo has vanished; John becomes a suspect in the boy’s disappearance, loses his job, and is harassed by Renzo’s wealthy father. When a physicist speculates that Renzo has time-travelled to Renaissance Florence, John, intent on bringing the boy home, travels back to the same parallel universe by touching a “timetree” while holding the other dagger at a precise day and time, He discovers that Renzo has become a powerful prince because of his prophesies about the future and does not want to leave. The story has a lively tempo, including a close call with the hangman’s noose and sparkling interactions with Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Machiavelli. It ranges widely between the history of Florence’s political rivalries and the riveting cultural contributions of the era’s most famous artists and thinkers. This is a splendid narrative linking art, history, and the modern world. [em](BookLife) [/em]