Francine Prose is one of a handful of truly indispensable American writers. -Gary Shteyngart The Glorious Ones are an unlikely troupe-theres 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.