This book was inspired by the long blond lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair that can be viewed in Milan, where it is presented in a veritable reliquary. Two friends, Clément and Arnaud, as alike as brothers, are equally fascinated by that lock of hair. They will soon meet a real live Lucrezia in whom they want recognize – each in his own way – the Renaissance woman. They can only accomplish their own destiny by joining her, by gain her recognition by love or by force. Under the hot sun, first of Florence, then of Capri, bravery and cowardice, the sordid and the splendid will face off in battle. Impalpable and light-hearted at first, then gradually growing implacable and violent, this brief tragedy is not unlike the tales of love and death that inspired Stendhal’s Italian Chronicles. But the characters its features – with their hopes, their passions, and their darkness – are undoubtedly of today’s world.

Lucrezia Borgia isn’t dead. Or rather, she has been reincarnated. And just like in the Renaissance, she is the object of violent passions under the Italian sun.