First published 2026
Avignon, 1347. Elea Blanchet moves quietly through her city, tending patients, gathering herbs in the woods outside the walls, and keeping her head down. She knows the lesson her mother's death taught her: a skilled woman who draws notice invites danger. Then a chance meeting with Guigo de Chauliac, physician to Pope Clement, opens a door she cannot refuse. She becomes his apprentice, weaving her folk medicine knowledge together with anatomy, astrology, and surgery. She grows capable. She grows visible. Both things will cost her. Two crises arrive at once. The Black Death reaches Europe and begins tearing through Avignon, killing half the city. Queen Joanna, disgraced and pregnant, comes to stand trial for her husband's murder and needs a midwife only Elea can be. As the plague dead pile up and fear turns the surviving population savage, a group of religious fanatics begins hunting for someone to blame. An unmarried woman with unusual skills and powerful connections is an easy target. Elea must deliver a queen, fight a plague, and survive a witch hunt, all at the same time. The story asks what a woman owes her city when her city would sooner burn her than thank her.
Genres: drama, historical-fiction, medical, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotionally-intense, gritty, suspenseful
Tropes: historical-crisis, mentor-apprentice, persecution, woman-against-society
Setting: Avignon, Europe
Period: 1347, 14th century, Medieval period
336 pages · Paperback · Dutton
Content warnings: death, sexism, violence