These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
In the opening sentences of The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell reveals that the protagonist—a teenage girl in late-Renaissance Italy—will be dead in less than a year, likely at her husband’s hand. Lucrezia, who’s 15 at the time of her arranged marriage to a duke, is hit with an eerie premonition about her fate, and begins to observe her husband, carefully noting the circumstances that will lead to her death. The novel—which follows O’Farrell’s 2020 hit Hamnet—shines with historic detail and elegant prose. —Angela Haupt
Buy Now: The Marriage Portrait on Bookshop | Amazon
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Cybersecurity Experts Are Sounding the Alarm on DOGE
- Meet the 2025 Women of the Year
- The Harsh Truth About Disability Inclusion
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Michelle Zauner Stares Down the Darkness