The Secrets of San Miniato

The Secret of San Miniato, written by Renzo Manetti, takes the reader on a gripping journey from twelfth-century Florence through medieval Europe to the turbulence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in its dying throes. The novel cleverly combines love story and suspense, alchemy and architecture, as the young couple at its heart set off in search the Holy Grail. The story is rooted in fact – an intriguing inscription on the marble inlay floor in the church of San Miniato in Florence which has no one has ever succeeding in fully ecplaining before now. The writer (his style perfectly preserved in the translation) skifully captures the feel of the twelfth century in his well-chosen language – it is never archaic but reads easily and the dialogue is always convincing. All the emotions are here – joy, fear, hottor, wonder, hope and hope dashed – and the reader is propelled along, turning the pages faster and faster as the story gathers momentum. It is a story of its time, with period details throughly researched and faithfully represented; but it is also a story for our time, with its intermingling of people of the three Abrahamic faiths – Jews, Muslims, Christians – all interacting to carry the story along. The story of Yosef and Miriam, the central couple, is engaging and heart-warming. They are delightful people – it doesn’t seem sufficient to say ’characters’, so real do they seem. The author clearly cares about them, and so do we. All his characters – the nice and the not-so nice – are handled with warmth and understanding. All in all, a riveting and highly recommended read.