The Scribe of Siena; a novel by Melodie Winawer

Mon, 06/05/2017 - 12:43pm -- JGranatino

Lovers of historical fiction/fantasy such as Gabaldon’s Outlander series and time travel novel such as Nifenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife will be captivated by the story of Beatrice Trovato, a gifted 21st century neurosurgeon who is mysteriously transported back in time to medieval Siena. Supporting herself as a scribe in the Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala, Beatrice will meet and fall in love with Gabriele Accosta, a gifted Sienese artist commissioned to produce a fresco for the hospital’s façade -- the very same artist whose journal Beatrice had discovered in her historian brother’s Siena home after his death. Not just a love story, this novel is a multi-layered tale of medieval political intrigue set in 1347, when the Black Plague would claim over half of Siena’s population. In her first novel, Winawer, a professor of neurology at Columbia University, captures the atmosphere of medieval Siena, offering particularly accurate descriptions of the medical practices of that time.

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