The Apothecary's Shop

Book excerpt: In a medieval Venice undone by devastating famine and excessive, orgiastic Carnival festivities of all kinds, the protagonists of The Apothecary’s Shop chase a dream of rebirth, the eternal fantasy of defeating death. The young Costanza, of the noble Grimani family, has disappeared. The family scribe, Edgardo, promises to return the girl to her family, who themselves may not be above suspicion. Doctors, apothecaries, undertakers, Eastern merchants, farmers: everyone seems to be involved in the girl’s disappearance, even African slave traders. Abella, Edgardo’s ambiguous ally and the only female doctor in Venice, introduces him to secrets and occult practices of medicine. Through her, Edgardo discovers Sabbatai’s Apothecary, where remedies and concoctions are prepared and clues to Costanza’s disappearance may lie. An erudite thriller in the vein of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, The Apothecary’s Shop offers readers an astonishing voyage into medieval Venice.