This book is built around the fortunes of one family with two branches; the Brunis and Brutis. It traces their beginnings, rise, fall and fortunes over the course of the 16th century. I was looking forward to reading this book after a good series of reviews, but, unfortunately, I found the book to be ponderous reading, full of minute information (someone’s mother’s maiden name, or the name of a village, once in Italian, then Albanian and also Turkish) that clogged up the flow of the narrative. It is also a difficult book for anyone who does not have a good overview of the locations and history as some events (which I consider to be key) are reviewed in a very short manner (such as the battle of Lepanto).



