The Witch of Cologne - first US edition

by Tobsha Lerner

A sensuous 17th-century saga set in German Catholic Cologne which transports readers to a time when studying the ancient Kabbalah could prove deadly for a young Jewish midwife. Ruth bas Elazar Saul undertakes the forbidden course of mystical study, her Sephardic mother's legacy, before absconding to Amsterdam to escape an arranged marriage where she acquires the contemporary midwifery skills which she combines with her sacred learning. Upon her return to Cologne she delivers wealthy burghers' babies using new lifesaving methods and earning a reputation for more than medical genius. As the Spanish Inquisition stretches its tentacles to the Rhineland, Ruth is arrested for sorcery by the sadistic archbishop Carlos Vicente Solitario, whose persecution of her is fueled by a stymied youthful obsession with her mother. An all-consuming novel that the reader will hate to see end.

Book is soft-bound, 9".5 x 6.3", 480 pages. Signed by the author on the title page.