Linda Ghio (born 1988) received her PhD in creative writing at London Metropolitan University in November 2020, which her first novel grew out of. She also has a First Class Honours Degree in Creative Writing from London Met. She writes short stories, poetry and novels. She is also a translator from English to Italian and Italian to English. Linda has contributed to a selection of poetry and narrative anthologies. In 2011 she was awarded the Sandra Ashman Prize for her steampunk/dystopia short story ‘Strays’. In 2013 her travel short story ‘Licata’ was awarded the Sandra Ashman Prize and the London Metropolitan Vice-Chancellor’s Prize. In 2014 her poem ‘Intern’s Sestina’ was also awarded the Sandra Ashman Prize.
Suggested English title for her first novel: THE DARK WAYS OF LOWER VENICE: A Cornelia Furlan Investigation (being published in Italian as LA CITTA DI ACQUA E VETRO)
Merging fantasy with Italian history and folklore, Linda Ghio creates an unforgettable and vivid world of an alternative Venice, split into Lower and Upper. In Upper all is light and glass, tranquillity and wealth but Lower is where all life is at.
A powerful mysterious creature is roaming the streets. It appears to be sucking the life force out of its victims, leaving husks where there were living humans. Initially the victims look like they might have been killed by a Lamia: women who live in the canals, who are peaceful but mistrusted. Captain Meneghin of Upper Venice’s guards can’t open an official investigation as that could spark civil war. The task falls to Cornelia Furlan, an irreverent detective from Lower Venice, who is determined to find the murderer. She has a heart condition and is kept alive by an apparatus inserted in her chest which she needs to wind up each morning. The apparatus, however, is old and starting to malfunction.
Cornelia is aided in her investigation by Stefano, a disgraced guard who’s half-Lamia and half-human, and as such is an outcast in both communities.
Incredibly vivid and believable with a brilliant cast of characters. There are orphans who move between Lower and Upper secretly and are Cornelia’s friends and informants. There is Professor Vàclav who believes he can animate dead matter. Cornelia’s landlord and friend is a crafty dwarf named Giuseppe, an inventor researching the elusive energy source phlogiston. There are glassblowers who might help contain phlogiston but the Council wants them to build weapons of war.
Tense, page-turning stuff with the odds stacked against Cornelia and Stefano and their friends. Will they save Lower Venice and each other?
Originally written in English, translated by the author into Italian so both English and Italian versions available.
Sales: Oscar Fantastica Mondadori Italy
She has nearly completed her second novel starring Cornelia Furlan also set in the alternative Venice she brought to life so brilliantly in the first.