#1 Midwife

The Midwife of Venice

Roberta Rich
3.61
13,406 ratings 1,448 reviews
Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers -- a gift aided by the secret "birthing spoons" she designed. But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman? Hannah's choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life. Not since The Red Tent or People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history.
Genres: Historical FictionFictionBook ClubHistoricalItalyJewishCanadaAdult16th CenturyRomance
352 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
2186 (16%)
4 star
5346 (40%)
3 star
4510 (34%)
2 star
1166 (9%)
1 star
198 (1%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Roberta Rich

Midwife Series

Lists with this book

The Name of the Rose
Romeo and Juliet
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
Italy
971 books488 voters
The Girl He Used to Know
The Peach Keeper
Digging to America
Back Head Close Ups
145 books27 voters