Laurent Binet, the French author who gained widespread recognition in Japan after winning the Booksellers' Award in the translation category for 'HHhH—Prague, 1942,' continues to captivate readers worldwide with his intellectually stimulating and compelling works. From 'The Seventh Function of Language,' featuring real-life philosophers such as Barthes, Foucault, Eco, Deleuze, and Guattari, to 'Civilizations,' which imagines an alternate history where the Inca Empire conquers Spain instead of being conquered by it, Binet consistently delivers novels that delight readers across the globe. His latest translated work, 'Perspective,' translated by Kei Takahashi and published under the Overseas Literary Selections imprint (hardcover), is released today, June 29. Set in 16th-century Florence, Italy, this historical mystery centers on the real-life murder of a painter during the height of the Renaissance. Laurent Binet / Translated by Kei Takahashi, 'Perspective' (Overseas Literary Selections) [Synopsis] In Renaissance Florence, the Mannerist painter Jacopo da Pontormo is found murdered—beaten with a hammer and stabbed in the chest with a chisel—in front of the fresco he had been painting for over ten years at the Basilica of San Lorenzo. In his studio remains a scandalous painting of Venus and Cupid bearing the face of Maria, daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, the Duke of Florence. Who killed Pontormo? Was he the one who painted this indecent image? Cosimo entrusts the investigation to Giorgio Vasari, a painter, architect, and art historian he deeply trusts. Vasari writes to Michelangelo, who is working on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, informing him of the crime and seeking his advice. Against the volatile backdrop of 16th-century Europe—a web of intrigue connecting Vasari and Michelangelo, Maria and her distant relative Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, and Catherine and Piero Strozzi, French marshal and Cosimo's enemy—unfolds a gripping tale of conspiracy and romance.