Something to read in summer

The Lady and the Unicorn tells us the creation of the famous tapestries now hung in the Musee de Cluny or the Moyen Age in Paris. They represent the taming of a unicorn by a maiden through the senses: hearing, touch, taste, sight, smell and love. The action takes place in Paris and Brussels at the end of the fifteen century, Two different families make up the story: the nouveau rich Jean Le Viste's who commissions the tapestries to show off his wealth and position at the court, and that of the master weaver Georges de la Chapelle whose workshop weaves them. The artist who designs them _the womaniser Parisian miniaturist Nicolas des Innocents_ gets involved in the lives of the women of the two families and brings their various stories together.
As in Falling Angels, Tracy Chevalier uses different narrators and each tells his / her part of the plot. Through them we learn about the life of the late fifteen century Paris and Brussels which is depicted beautifully. As she says "this is a novel about creating art, but it is also a tale of ambition, lust, betrayal, and heartbreak". We see how the making of these fascinating tapestries affected the lives of all who came in contact with them, and what inspired their creators.
Tracy Chevalier has chosen to set her books in a historical period that has been thoroughly researched to bring an accurate yet charming and lively portrait of the time and the characters. Four of the five books she has written so far _The Virgin Blue, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels and The Lady and the Unicorn, deal both with women and their traditional concerns: marriages, happiness, duty, desire, love, personal frustrations ... , and with the evocation of the past which is brought to life through homely details and a skillful portrayal of a set of values often harsh to our time.