The Gondola Maker

“I was not supposed to be the eldest son, but here I am, the accidental heir to my father’s boatyard. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I am here at all.”

Venice, 1581
Luca Vianello is the heir to the city’s most esteemed gondola boatyard. It’s his life’s calling, his duty to his father and the generations that came before him.

But when his mother dies in childbirth, a lifetime of resentment boils to the surface. In an argument with his father, Luca accidentally sets fire to the boatyard. In an instant, his life, his destiny, goes up in flames.

Alone for the first time, Luca secures a job as a private gondolier to a portrait painter. He discovers a dilapidated gondola in the shadows of the artist’s boathouse. He recognizes it as an antique made in his own family boatyard--by his own grandfather’s hands.

Luca finds himself drawn to restore the old gondola with the dream of taking a beautiful girl for a ride. He doesn't know that the girl, the daughter of a rich banker who has come to the artist's studio to sit for a portrait, has a plan of her own.