Travel back to late-15th-century Florence with us, as we welcome author Phil Melanson to Juno to discuss his novel Florenzer, a ravishing debut that reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men: a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo.
Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de'Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world's wealthiest and most influential bank. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence's streets.
Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama explores the dangerous pursuit of artistic and political achievement- especially at a time when "florenzers," or gay men such as Leonardo, were often persecuted. Mining the origins of one of history's finest artists and the city where he came of age, Florenzer introduces an enthralling new voice in fiction.
Phil Melanson is the author of Florenzer, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Warwick. Prior to writing Florenzer, he was a digital marketer for Hollywood film studios. He now lives in London, and lectures in film and television.
Phil will be in conversation with Alim Kheraj, who is a freelance writer and the author of Queer London, a guide to LGBTQ+ London past, present and future. His work has appeared in The New York TImes, The Guardian , The Observer , GQ , Dazed and i-D, and is one of the booksellers here at Juno Books.
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