Passion Dream Book, The

In The Passion Dream Book Whitney Otto blends fiction and history to explore the tumultuous relationship between art and the lives artists chose in the service of their art. Otto weaves a story that shifts from the Italian Renaissance to the Harlem Renaissance of 1930s America. The novel--the second from the author of the well-loved How to Make an American Quilt--opens with the story of Guilietta Marcel, a young Florentine girl who spies on the artist Michelangelo while he sculpts the "David" in his studio and aspires herself to create art. Then we jump to the 20th century, where Romy March, a descendant of Guilietta, faces a related collection of difficult choices in the quest to become an artist herself.