THREE FIRES

In stately British tones, Rachael Beresford presents this novella fictionalizing the life of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, a fanatical and virulently anti-Semitic Dominican friar who lived in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century. Beresford's crisp recitation seeps through the life, actions, sermons, and ultimately forced confession of Savonarola at the Inquisition trial that followed his "bonfire of the vanities" speech. This emotionless account of Savonarola and late medieval Christianity is told in the present tense with jarring interjections of 21st-century hindsight and anachronistic terminology and idioms. Ultimately, Beresford's soporific narration is only awakened during scenes of torture and Savonarola's grisly burning at the stake. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2024]