As the book jacket promises, Wells sets up "the tension between visibility and invisibility, between internal strength and external powerlessness"-with some touches of humor to boot. I appreciated the author's imagination about the details of the Plague, the ways in which some healers could have survived the burnings, how the feline population could have rebounded (the church killed cats along with women), and Paris in the 1500s. Most irritating is the author's tendency to sum up in neat paragraphs what An Alert Reader could discern on her own about the action and the characters' motivations.īut I did feel immersed in Europe 1465-1540. Also (this is on the publisher, not the author), the copy editing is abysmal (for example, "plaintiff cry," "she grabbed the reigns," persistent punctuation errors). There are abrupt shifts in point of view, and an engaging villain disappears (temporarily? I don't want to be a spoiler) halfway through. For example, we get inside the heads of some minor characters, yet we never learn the thoughts of one of the most important characters. Some passages were horrifying, but the story hooked me.Īctually, the story is better than the writing. Man, did this book make me hate the Catholic church. Well-researched, interesting historical fiction: the Inquisition from the perspective of midwives/healers and what we would today call lesbian, bi, and gay people.
Her work has appeared in more than three dozen literary journals and anthologies, has been reprinted in England and translated into Italian.
She is a recipient of a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature, a four-time finalist for the national Lambda Literary Award, and a member of the Saints & Sinners Literary Hall of Fame. It dramatizes the early adulthood of Christine de Pizan, the first feminist and first woman to make her living as a writer. DALL highlights life around a small lake in Northern Michigan.Ī Slender Tether, is set in France in the 1300s. She also released audiobooks for several of her novels, and a collection of modern short stories: The Disappearing Andersons of Loon Lake is now available on, and iTunes. Critics call them “complex characters, vividly drawn” and “delightful proof that a literary novel can be a deeply satisfying page-turner.” It recently won the Bronze Award for Adult Fiction/Romance from the Foreword Indies Awards 2020! Through the World Wars, back to the Age of Discovery and up to modern times, villagers on a small Italian hilltop struggle with a sense of purpose and the meanings of love. Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate, delves into five generations of women chocolatiers in a small Italian village. She recently re-released The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back, a historical novel dramatizing the fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning times in Europe, 1465-1540. Reviewers are calling it “exquisitely written.” Their mirth is challenged by a greedy mayor and a murderous forger.
Winner of the Nautilus Silver Prize, Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar is set in 1865 when two extraordinary women establish a raucous trading post for cast-off women. Wells is the author of six novels and five books of short stories. The Mandrake Broom is based on extensive research of historical sources, herbal remedies and the medicines of the time. Theo Paracelsus, father of modern chemistry, a brilliant eunuch and addict who works with Luccia to forge a bridge between the new and old medicines. Marcelle, a hunter and co-conspirator as they are pushed to the brink and take up arms for revenge. 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.įiona, her Irish godmother, who tries to protect Luccia and forge a family while struggling with epilepsy and grief. Daughter of a medical professor at the University of Salerno, Italy, Luccia is destined to carry ancient texts and herbal lore into the dangerous and groundbreaking future. Set in Europe in 1465-1540, The Mandrake Broom follows Luccia Alimenti as she fights the forces that attempt to keep medical knowledge out of the hands of women. In this ambitious and far-reaching new historical novel, The Mandrake Broom, Wells dramatizes one woman's courageous fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning era.
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