In an age of wonderous beauty and terrible secrets,one man searches for his destiny...In the majestic heart of Florence, a beautiful golden-haired boy is abandoned and subjected to cruelty beyond words. But Luca Bastardo is anything but an ordinary boy. Across two centuries of passion and intrigue, Luca will discover an astonishing gift--one that will lead him to embrace the ancient mysteries of alchemy and healing and to become a trusted confidant to the powerful Medicis...even as he faces persecution from a sadistic cabal determined to wrest his secrets for themselves.But as the Black Death and the Inquisition wreak havoc on his beloved city, Luca's survival lies in the quest to solve two riddles. One is the enigma of his parents and his ageless beauty. The other is a choice between immortality and the only chance to find his one true love. As Luca journeys through the heights of the Renaissance, befriends Giotto and Leonardo Da Vinci--140 years apart--and pursues the most closely guarded secrets of religious faith and science for the answers to his own burning questions, his remarkable search will not only change him...but will change the course of history.From the Trade Paperback edition.