“Francine Prose is one of a handful of truly indispensable American writers.” —Gary Shteyngart

The Glorious Ones are an unlikely troupe—there’s Armanda, the cheerful dwarf and ex-nun; chattering Columbina; Pantalone the miser; and the wicked Brighella; all led by Flaminio Scala, the self-proclaimed most courageous man in Christendom. They travel up and down seventeenth-century Italy, performing in palaces and poor villages alike. For all their wild differences, not one of them is prepared for the arrival of the mysterious Isabella, their new boss.

Francine Prose is the author of sixteen novels, including A Changed Man, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. A former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prose is a highly regarded critic and essayist, and has taught literature and writing for more than twenty years at major universities. She is a distinguished writer in residence at Bard College, and she lives in New York City.