Roberta Rich

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maine

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 or 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 a poetic imagination--not to mention long-pent-up desire--to earn his day-to-day survival by penning love letters on behalf of his captor and a paying illiterate public.

Back in Venice, Hannah packs her ""birthing spoons"--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 readers 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 who will fight for the survival of the man she loves, and the women and babies she is duty-bound to protect, carrying with her the best of humanity's compassion and courage.

The Midwife of Venice

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Ohio

Hannah Levi, a Jewish midwife, must decide if she will accept payment for delivering a countess' baby, as she is torn between breaking a Papal edict forbidding Jews from providing medical care to Christians and her desperate need to ransom her husband from pirates.

The Midwife of Venice (Special Advance Reader’s Edition)

"Hannah Levi is known throughout sixteenth-century Venice for her skill in midwifery. But when a Christian nobleman appears at her door in the Jewish ghetto imploring her to help his wife who is dying in childbirth, Hannah's compassion is tested. Not only is it illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it's also punishable by torture and death. Yet Hannah finds she cannot refuse the chance to make more money than she's ever seen in her whole life. With such a handsome sum, she could save her husband, Issaac, who months earlier was captured at sea and forced into slavery in Malta by the Knights of St. John. Aided by her forbidden "birthing spoons" - rudimentary forceps she invented to coax reluctant babies out of their mothers' wombs - Hannah agrees to assist the nobleman and attend to his ailing wife and child. Will she be able to save the mother and the baby? And if she does, will she also be able to save herself? Woven throughout Hannah's travails in Venice is the story of Isaac and his life as a slave in Malta. Fearing that Hannah has perished in plague, he pins whatever hopes he has of returning home to her on his talent for writing love letters that melt even the hardest of hearts"--

Category - Fiction / Historical Fiction

Format - Paperback

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Est. Publication Date - Mar 2013

The Midwife of Venice

ISBN: 9780385679480

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Category - Fiction / Historical Fiction

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - A month ago

Views - 2

Ships From - Maine

Est. Publication Date - Mar 2013

The Midwife of Venice

ISBN: 9780385679480

Publisher Description

The Midwife of Venice

By:

$2.50

Meet the seller

Discover more

The Midwife of Venice

By: Roberta Rich

Pango Buyer Protection

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Additional titles by Roberta Rich

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