This is a historical novel, loosely based
on a murder that took place in Cesky Krumlov, outer Bohemia, in the early seventeenth
century. At that time, barbers were also barber-surgeons,
or bloodletters. The villagers relied on the barber to relieve their ailments
by balancing the four "humors."
Marketa Pichler is the daughter of the town
bloodletter, or surgeon. Even though girls can’t be surgeons, Marketa’s father
teaches her everything he knows, and she becomes his assistant. When Rudolf II,
Holy Roman Emperor, exiles his mad son, Don Julius, to Cesky Krumlov, the
bloodletter is enlisted to cure him of his madness by purging the vicious
humors coursing through his veins. Marketa accompanies him, and Don Julius becomes
obsessed with her. Marketa, both frightened and fascinated by the handsome royal,
can’t stay away.
This is a suspenseful and dark story set in
a period in which the entire world was constantly engaged in war. The backdrop
of the story is the internecine fighting for the Holy Roman Empire. Not for the faint-of heart.
512 pages
