The House of Niccolò
vol. 4
Scales of Gold
After many dangers, the group reaches Timbuktu, Lopez's home. Here in the city of libraries, a new task and a new goal await Nicholas. And Lopez, now once again Umar the African jurist and scholar, is reunited with his family.
From the glass factories of Murano, to the Azores, through the jungle of the African coast where only recently the Genoese and Portuguese have dared to explore, Dunnett takes her readers all the way into the legendary town of Timbuktu, the cultural centre of Islam on the edge of the great Saharan desert. And amidst all these wonders, Dunnett does not forget the price Africa pays to the Europeans: the slave trade has begun along the coast of Gambia, and greed for gold and riches attracts fortune hunters and unscrupulous buccaneers.
