The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt takes place in Venice, Berendt arriving just after the fire in the Fenice Opera House. The story of the burning down of the Fenice provides the backbone of the book, but other stories are intertwined, and much like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is part travelogue, part gossip, part history, with a bit of intrigue mixed in. I really liked this book not least because Berendt is a gifted writer, hard researched details and insights are included without distracting from the flow of the book. He dishes the dirt no doubt deservedly on a few people, and he gives a good feeling for the city at least for the casual visitor. How this book will stack up against the other ‘Venice books’ is hard to say is there a more romantic literary city both in spirit or actual fact than Venice? So this book might just fade under the weight of comparison against previous and future tales of Venice. Especially as the Fenice fire is essentially an unfinished outcome, there is plenty of smoke but the real fire behind still remains hidden.