The Master Of Verona, the debut novel by Chicago-based Shakespearean actor and director David Blixt, is a historical and cultural immersion into fourteenth-century Italian life. We find ourselves standing on the cusp of the birth of the Renaissance, immersed in the Golden Age of Dante and the watching the cause and effect that would launch forth events that would inspire one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.

The Master Of Verona focuses on the events that initiated the famous feud in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Blixt asked this question: what happened between the Montagues and the Capulets that eventually caused the tragic dual suicide? The Master Of Verona is the answer to that question.

With a large ensemble of characters, we are exposed to a veritable cornucopia of swashbuckling eccentricities and temperaments. From such questionable persons as Giovanna da Svevia, the illegitimate descendant of Emperor Frederick II to more prominent folks such as Pietro Alaghieri, the eldest son of poet Dante, who like his father was exiled from Florence in 1312 to the callous Marsilio da Carrara, a knight from the family Padua, the novel is brimming with personality.

In the same historical fiction tradition as Michael Chabon and his brilliant novels The Yiddish Policeman’s Union and Gentlemen of the Road, as well as just about any novel by Bernard Cornwell, The Master Of Verona is a beautifully realized historical novel. It is flowing with intricate plot movements, taut narrative, head spinning revelations and vibrantly painted scenes. At times the novel gets bogged down in fourteenth-century Italian minutiae; with all those Italian names swirling about, at times I felt like I was reading one of those Biblical “Jeddadiah begat Ezekiel who beget Ishmael” scriptures. But this complication is a mechanism of historical fiction and not the fault of Blixt. For historical accuracy you must use that which history gives you.

Overall, The Master Of Verona is a rich, resonant novel, voluminous with the verve of life and a downright pleasure to read. This book is nirvana for any lover of quality historical fiction or books that focus upon Italian/European history. But it will also speak passionately to all connoisseurs of great fiction, regardless of their literati bent of interest.