Roberta Rich whisks her readers away to sixteenth-century Venice in her bestselling novel, THE MIDWIFE OF VENICE. Hannah Levi is a skilled midwife with a well earned reputation of safely delivering children under the most dangerous conditions. When Hannah is urgently contacted by a nobleman to help deliver a child, she must decide between helping a mother who lingers between life and death and respecting the laws which forbid Jews from attending a Christian birth. Although Hannah knows helping a Christian woman could put her life in danger, the Contessa's husband offers Hannah the one chance to save her husband who has been enslaved on the Island of Malta.

Hannah realizes helping the Conte and Contessa could put not only her life in danger, but also the lives of the entire Jewish ghetto. But when the Conte agrees to pay Hannah the large sum of money which will buy her husband's freedom, Hannah agrees to help deliver the Contessa's child. When Hannah arrives, the Contessa seems not long for this world. Not only is the Contessa's life in danger, but Hannah realizes the child is not in a position for a safe delivery. Torn between her training as a midwife and the realization that the mother and child hold the key to freeing her husband, Hannah struggles to save the child, at the request of the Conte, even at the expense of the mother. But Hannah's miraculous skills, save not only the child, but the mother as well.

Armed with the money to free her husband, Hannah is ill prepared for the unexpected danger that threatens her when she accidentally leaves proof of her visit in the Contessa's room. When her midwife tools find themselves in the wrong hands, Hannah must use all her skills and wits to outsmart the greedy brothers of the Conte, who wish to do away with the child who has robbed them of their inheritance. As Hannah struggles to save the child she miraculously brought into the world, Issac Levi is sold and resold as a slave in Malta. Only the memory of Hannah gives him the strength to endure the torture and starvation he must face as a Jewish slave. But Issac is armed with one powerful weapon: his literacy. Issac uses his florid writing skills to free himself and return back to the arms of his beautiful wife, the midwife of Venice.

Roberta Rich pens an unforgettable novel of enduring love, greed, and unbridled corruption. Set in the plague infested streets of Venice, Rich immerses readers into Hannah's desperate struggle between the man she loves and the child she has grown to love as her own. THE MIDWIFE OF VENICE is a novel will which touch the hearts of readers. Unwavering love, family intrigue, and the horrors of the Black Death make THE MIDWIFE OF VENICE a splendid read!

Book Summary

A "lavishly detailed" ( Elle Canada) debut that masterfully captures sixteenth century Venice against a dramatic and poetic tale of suspense. 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. Hannah Levi is renowned for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers using her secret "birthing spoons." When a Christian count implores her to attend his dying wife and save their unborn son, she is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the count's payment is enough to ransom Hannah's husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can she refuse her duty to a woman who is suffering? Hannah's choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the child and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life. Beautifully told with exceptional skill, The Midwife of Venice brings to life a time and a place cloaked in fascination and mystery and introduces a captivating new talent in historical fiction.