Roberta Rich

"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"--

The Midwife of Venice

The Imperial Harem, Constantinople, 1579 Hannah and Isaac Levi, Venetians in exile, have set up a new life for themselves in Constantinople. Isaac runs a newly established business in the growing silk trade, while Hannah, the best midwife in all of Constantinople, plies her trade within the opulent palace of Sultan Murat III, tending to the thousand women of his lively and infamous harem. But one night, when Hannah is unexpectedly summoned to the palace, she's confronted with Leah, a poor Jewish peasant girl who has been abducted and sold into the sultan's harem. The sultan favours her as his next conquest and wants her to produce his heir, but the girl just wants to return to her home and the only life she has ever known. What will Hannah do? Will she risk her life and livelihood to protect this young girl, or will she retain her high esteem in the eye of the sultan? An adventurous, opulent and deliciously exciting read, peopled with fascinating, unforgettable characters (a court eunuch; the calculating sultan's mother-in-law; the beguiling harem ladies; and a very mysterious young beauty from Venice who shows up on Hannah's doorstep, causing much havoc), this novel is sure to please fans of The Midwife of Venice and extend Roberta's reputation as one of Canada's most loved historical fiction authors.

The Harem Midwife

Jazz Club Spy

In The Midwife of Venice, set in 1575, Hannah Levi was forced to flee Venice with the baby of a Venetian aristocratic family whom she rescued. Roberta Rich followed that action-packed adventure with The Harem Midwife, which exiled Hannah and her beloved husband Isaac to Constantinople--only for Hannah to become enmeshed in the shady politics of a sultan's harem. And now, with A Trial in Venice, set five years later, Hannah is forced back to Venice--both to opulent yet crumbling villas and the Jewish ghetto known as Veneto. Her beloved adopted son Matteo has been kidnapped and is in danger once more. And this time, so is Hannah.

A Trial in Venice

In het 16e eeuwse Venetië mag een joodse vroedvrouw geen christelijke vrouwen van dienst zijn, toch roept een christelijke edelman haar hulp in als zijn vrouw in het kraambed dreigt te overlijden.

De vroedvrouw van Venetië / druk 1

” In de aandacht: de nieuwe homiletiek van prof. dr. Kees de Ruijter.Roberta Rich De vroedvrouw van Venetië 330 pagina's | Paperback | ISBN: 9789023994466Venetië, 1575. Vroedvrouw Hannah Levi heeft al heel wat babys gered met haar geheime kraamtechniek.Venetië, 1575. Vroedvrouw Hannah Levi heeft al heel wat babys gered met haar geheime kraamtechniek. Op een nacht wordt ze te hulp geroepen door de graaf van Padovani. Zijn vrouw en kind dreigen tijdens de bevalling te bezwijken. Het is een gevaarlijk verzoek, want het is Joden bij pauselijk edict verboden christenen medische hulp te verlenen. Hannah stemt toe en vraagt een astronomisch bedrag voor haar diensten met het geld hoopt ze haar man Isaak vrij te kunnen kopen, die op Malta gevangen zit. Hannahs beslissing heeft grote gevolgen. Ze raakt verstrikt in een web van familievetes, verraad en hebzucht. Niet alleen haar eigen leven loopt gevaar, ook dat van de baby die zonder haar hulp dood geboren zou zijn. De schuwe Hannah komt tot daden die ze niet voor mogelijk had gehouden.

Roberta Rich

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