Story Description:
Doubleday Canada|February 8, 2011|Trade
Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-385-66827-9
At midnight, the dogs, cats, and rats rule
Venice. The Ponte di Ghetto Nuovo, the
bridge that leads to the ghetto trembles under the weight of sacks of rotting
vegetables, rancid fat, and vermin.
Shapeless matter, perhaps animal, floats to the surface of Rio di San
Girolamo and hovers on its greasy waters.
Through the mist rising from the canal the cries and grunts of foraging
pigs echo. Seeping refuse on the streets
renders the pavement slick and the walking treacherous.
It was on such a night that the men came for Hannah.
Hannah Levi is known throughout sixteenth-century
Venice for her skill in midwifery. When
a Christian count appears at Hannah’s door in the Jewish ghetto imploring her
to attend his labouring wife, who is nearing death, Hannah is forced to make a
dangerous decision. Not only is it
illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it’s also
punishable by torture and death.
Moreover, as her Rabbi angrily points out, if the mother of child should
die, the entire ghetto population will be in peril.
But Hannah’s compassion for another woman’s misery
overrides her concern for self-preservation.
The Rabbi once forced her to withhold care from her shunned sister,
Jessica, with terrible consequences.
Hannah cannot turn away from a labouring woman again. Moreover, she cannot turn down the enormous
fee offered by the Conte. Despite the
Rabbi’s protests, she knows that this money can release her husband, Isaac, a
merchant who was recently taken captive on Malta as a slave. There is nothing Hannah wants more than to
see the handsome face of the loving man who married her despite her lack of
dowry, and who continues to love her despite her barrenness. She must save Isaac.
Meanwhile, far away in Malta, Isaac is worried about
Hannah’s safety, having heard tales of the terrifying plague ravaging
Venice. But his own life is in terrible
danger. He is auctioned as a slave to
the head of the local convent, Sister Assunta, who is bent on converting him to
Christianity. When he won’t give up his
faith, he’s traded to the brutish lout Joseph, who is renowned for working his
slaves to death. Isaac soon learns that
Joseph is heartsick over a local beauty who won’t give him the time of
day. Isaac uses his gifts of literacy
and poetic imagination – not to mention long-pent-up desire but to earn his
day-to-day survival by penning love letters on behalf of his captor and paying
illiterate public.
Back in Venice, Hannah packs her “birthing spoons” – a
secret rudimentary forceps she invented to help with difficult births – and sets
off with the Conte and his treacherous brother.
Can she save the mother? Can she
save the baby, on whose tiny shoulders the Conte’s legacy rests? And can she also save herself, and Isaac, and
their own hopes for a future, without endangering the lives of everyone in the
ghetto?
The Midwife
of Venice is a gripping historical page-turner, enthralling
leaders with its suspenseful action and vivid depiction of life in
sixteenth-century Venice. Roberta Rich
has created a wonderful heroine in Hannah Levi, a lioness with her the best of
humanity’s compassion and courage.
My Review:
In 1575 in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice lives, Hannah
Levi, a young midwife and the best and most well-known throughout the
region. Her husband, Isaac, is on the
island of Malta incarcerated as a slave and there is a 1500 ducat price for his
release which Hannah just cannot afford.
Late one evening, a knock on her door brings her
Rabbi, Ibraiham, along with a Christian nobleman by the name of, Conte Paolo di
Padovani, and his brother, Jacopo. The
Christians had no right whatsoever to be in the ghetto and had no right to seek
Hannah’s services, but that is exactly why Padovani is there. His wife, Lucia, has been labouring for two
days and two nights, the sheets soaked through with her blood, yet the baby
remains unborn. He begs Hannah to come
with him to help his wife but Jewish women are strictly forbidden to birth
Christian babies or provide any type of medical treatment whatsoever. If Hannah agrees, not only will it be torture
and death for her, but serious trouble for the entire ghetto. She would be putting herself and everyone
else at risk. Not being the type of
person able to refuse help nor money, Hannah strikes up a deal with Padovani
and the money she earns she could use to save Isaac.
The Midwife
of Venice is a page-turning, heartrending, historical debut
full of suspense and romance. Roberta
Rich is an up-and-coming author to watch!!
I will be highly recommending this novel to everyone, excellent!!
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