Book 37 of 52: The Midwife of Venice

This story centres on Hannah Levi, who is a midwife in the Jewish ghetto of Venice in 1575. When a Christian nobleman asks her to attend his wife (who is near death), she initially refuses, since the law forbids a Jew to give care to a Christian. But he is desperate and agrees to pay an exorbitant fee. Against the wishes of her rabbi, Hannah agrees so she can use the money to buy back her husband Isaac, who has been captured and forced into slavery in Malta.

The Midwife of Venice is full of rich historical detail—although I have no idea whether it’s accurate or not. I found the description of birthing babies in the 1500’s fascinating and scary at the same time. I’ll never forget the description of Hannah’s birth spoons. The book is educational as well, especially in discussing the religious differences between Christians and Jews at that time.
 
The chapters alternate between Hannah in Venice and her husband Isaac in Malta and their continuing struggle to be together. Isaac's chapters are just as full of historical detail, but it was Hannah and her tale I enjoyed the most. She was a fierce female heroine with her character coming to life on the page. Each of her chapters ended with a cliffhanger, making me want to rush through the next chapter about her husband just to get back to her story.

My only real complaint about this book was that it ended too soon. I wanted to see what happened to the characters as they grew older. I've seen some rumours online that the author, Roberta Rich is working on a sequel, with the working title The Levirate Marriage.