![]() Meanwhile war looms as the British seek to wrest away the colony from the Netherlands. Soon Blandine stands accused of witchcraft. Hysteria mounts with the rising death toll. Joining her investigation is handsome English spy Edward Drummond. An orphan herself, Blandine is determined to unmask the culprit. Later their corpses are found in bizarre ritualistic settings, suggesting the presence of the "witika," an evil spirit in Native American lore who possesses people and forces them to commit acts of cannibalism. Her idyll is shattered when terror strikes her community. Women in Dutch culture enjoyed great economic liberties (as Zimmerman knows well, having written a biography - Women of the House - of just one such New Amsterdam "she merchant") and Blandine is as much at home traveling to wilderness trading posts as she is drinking in the tavern across from her dwelling house. Blandine van Couvering is a rising young merchant in 1663 New Amsterdam, now southern Manhattan. Like The Book of Madness and Cures, it features a strong and unusual female protagonist. Jean Zimmerman's The Orphanmaster is a rip-roaring read, packed with action and dark suspense. The book plunges the reader into the zeitgeist of an era when medical science rubbed shoulders with alchemy and astrology - and when any woman who claimed medical knowledge could be burned for witchcraft. The narrative is interspersed with Gabriella's entries into her magnum opus, The Book of Madness and Cures, detailing rare diseases such as the Plague of Black Tears. Finally, she leaves Europe behind for the Atlas Mountains, in North Africa. Following the clues in his letters, she embarks on an epic journey to find her lost father, an odyssey that takes her through the dark forests of Germany all the way to Edinburgh. Without his patronage, Gabriella can no longer remain in the guild or practice medicine. His letters home, meanwhile, reflect an increasingly troubled mind. As the novel opens, he's been missing for 10 years, having left on a journey and never returned. ![]() In Venice, anno 1590, we meet Gabriella Mondini, a physician trained by her father, who sponsored her entry in the otherwise all-male Physicians' Guild. I was enthralled by this strikingly original and gorgeously written quest story. Although we know how Boleyn's story ends, Mantel keeps the reader on tenterhooks in this sinister tale of power politics played for the highest stakes. This leaves Cromwell in a hopeless double bind: His survival hinges on ensuring the queen's doom, yet his coldblooded machinations to bring this about plant the seeds of his own downfall. Now Cromwell must help fickle Henry rid himself of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. ![]() In Wolf Hall, Cromwell plotted the execution of statesman, author and Catholic loyalist Thomas More. A commoner whose cunning and ruthless intelligence have made him the king's most trusted adviser, Cromwell is the ultimate self-made Renaissance man, as inspired by Machiavelli as he is by the Scriptures. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's master secretary and spin artist, must once more carry out the monarch's dirty work. Faster paced and more tautly written, Bring Up the Bodies revels in its distinctly unromantic view of the Tudor court. Amazingly, Bodies is even stronger than its predecessor. Mantel's Wolf Hall - the opening volume of a planned trilogy - won the prize in 2009. Hillary Mantel made history this year when her Bring Up the Bodies became the first sequel to win the Man Booker Prize. These six novels meet that test, helping show us how the past has shaped the world we live in today. Historical fiction should also challenge our preconceptions and reveal facets of history we never thought about before - what was it like to be a Bengali opium merchant in 19th century Canton, or a female physician in Renaissance Venice?Īnd, like all great literature, the best historical fiction must have something meaningful to say, some insight that is ultimately timeless. To truly evoke the past, the characters' sensibilities and entire worldview must mirror the historical setting. The best historical fiction does more than conjure up an exotic backdrop for a conventional storyline. For me, more than any other medium, historical fiction brings the past to life and makes it matter. Long dismissed as genre fiction, the historical novel has now established itself in the literary mainstream, thanks in part to heavyweight authors like two-time Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel.
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