Lilie z Palerma Lyne Charlotte (2018)

This Czech-language historical novel tells the story of Aita, a young woman admired as the most beautiful in her Palermo neighbourhood, and Emidio, a withdrawn artistic blacksmith whom the locals call the devil. As Charles of Anjou tightens his grip on Sicily and rising taxes ruin businesses and lives, tension builds towards catastrophe. Aita, spoiled and accustomed to manipulating people, longs for something extraordinary, mysterious and slightly forbidden. When she becomes obsessed with Emidio, she shocks and angers everyone by marrying him. Yet her husband is closed off, burdened by a painful past and rejecting his wife. Will Emidio eventually fall in love with Aita, or will they and their families be crushed by rival powers? A dramatic and compelling novel set in thirteenth-century Palermo during the Sicilian Vespers.