This precious little "carnet d adresses," to say it as the French, was written and illustrated by three Venetian women. Two of its authors were born in the city, the third adopted Venice heart and soul as her own. It reveals to readers the most authentic and exclusive Venice: the city that hosts shops, boutiques, restaurants and "osterie," museums, and so many other places whether they be all-time favorites or well-kept secrets of the true Venetians. And now visitors may discover these exquisitely rare and refined experiences for themselves too. Original drawings in a dynamic style lead us through the city by itineraries according to theme.My Pretty Venice is so much more than a simple guide."

To save his father from execution for treason, the Bravo Giovanni agrees to act as an assassin for The Council of Ten, and ruthlessly carries out their orders for targeted killings against real or imagined enemies of the Serene Republic of Venice in Italy. Inevitably, the Council members begin using the Bravo for their own purposes. When the Count de Bellamonte lusts after a helpless orphan girl, he forces Giovanni to eliminate her protector. But the girl's mother, the most sought-after courtesan in Venice, uses all her power and influence to protect her daughter. The play, adapted from a novel by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, is filled with eerie beauty and quiet horror--like Venice itself, a gondola of pretty pearls rocking gently on the murky, putrefying, garbage-laden waves of its many canals.

Contradictions (both real and apparent), oppositions, enigmas, provocations, challenges——this is the kind of material that makes a life, and is the kind of material that, in fiction, one is never quite sure of. With Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us again that she is a master of just such stuff, presenting ambiguity and complication as the essence of the storyteller's endeavour. The sheer force of life that Gunn is able to load these stories up with is both testament to her unrivalled skill and an exercise in what she describes as 'reading and writing ugly', in order to pursue the deeper truths that lie at the heart of both the human imagination and human rationality. So here we have all the strange and seemingly impossible dualities that make up real life——and pretty ugly it can be, as well as beautiful, hopeful, bleak, difficult, exhilarating. But never, ever dull.

Robert "'Cali" Callahan is a teen runaway, living on the streets of Venice Beach, California. He's got a pretty sweet life: a treehouse to sleep in, a gang of surf bros, a regular basketball game...even a girl who's maybe-sorta interested in him. What he doesn't have is a plan. All that changes when a local cop refers Cali to a private investigator who is looking for a missing teenager. After all, Cali knows everyone in Venice. But the streets are filled with people who don't want to be found, and when he's hired to find the beautiful Reese Abernathy--who would do anything to stay hidden--Cali enters a new world filled with mysterious characters, dangerous choices, and his first chance at real love.