Synopsis:

The Mandrake Broom, a historical novel based in Europe 1465-1540, dramatizes one woman's courageous fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning times.  Meet:

• Luccia Alimenti, daughter of a medical professor at the University of Salerno, Italy, destined to carry ancient texts and herbal lore into the dangerous and ground-breaking future.
• Theo Paracelsus, father of modern chemistry, a brilliant eunuch and addict who works with Luccia to forget a bridge between the new and old medicines.
• Fiona, her Irish godmother who tries to protect her and forge a family while struggling with epilepsy and grief.
• Marcelle, a hunter and co-conspirator as they are pushed to the brink and take up arms for revenge.

The Mandrake Broom involves the tension between visibility and invisibility, between internal strength and external powerlessness, and the continually fluid interplay of those factors, while it takes the reader through persecution and Plague; love and joy, and the struggle for unity.  The Mandrake Broom is based on extensive research of historical sources, herbal remedies and the medicines of the time.

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Topics/Categories:

European History, Feminist History, herbalists, Historical Fiction, invention of the printing press, medical history, Middle Ages, Paracelsus, the Inquisition, the Plague, witch-burnings, women's history

Genre:

General History, Medicine

Type of Work:

Novel

Publishers:

Firebrand Books

Purchase From:

Receive an autographed copy at: The Mandrake Broom

Original Publish Date:

November 27, 2007

Formats:

Paperback Audio CD (pending)

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