The city of falling angels
By: John Berendt.
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 414
ISBN-13: 9780143036937
Subjects: Teatro La Fenice -- Fire, 1996.; Venice (Italy) -- Description and travel.; Venice (Italy) -- Social life and customs.
Other titles: Dr. Frank Kowsky
Description: Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, marble ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are underway. This book opens in 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house, a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective--inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city--while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. He introduces us to a rich cast of characters, Venetian and expatriate, in a tale full of atmosphere and surprise which reveals a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif, adding elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense.--From publisher description.
Notes: Map of Venice on endpapers.

Dr. Frank Kowsky.
Table of contents: title: The Venice effect; title: An evening in Venice; title: Dust & ashes; title: At water level; title: Sleepwalking; title: Slow burn; title: The rat man of Treviso; title: Glass warfare; title: Expatriates: the first family; title: The last canto; title: For a couple of bucks; title: Opera buffa; title: Beware of falling angels; title: The man who loved others; title: The inferno revisited; title: Open house.