Real Simple
In Melodie Winawer’s The Scribe of Siena, neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato finds herself mysteriously transported to 14th-century Italy. There she uncovers a plot to destroy the city of Siena. With the Black Plague on its way to ravage Europe, will she make it out in time? And does she want to? After all, she’s fallen in love with medieval life—and a handsome painter. Like Outlander with an Italian accent.
Booklist
An engrossing historical epic. Winawer’s wide-ranging, romantic story moves apace, yet it has considerable meat on its structural bones, with plentiful details on fourteenth-century Sienese daily life, customs, art, and travel.
Meg Waite Clayton
The Scribe of Siena is one part historical mystery and one part love story with a captivating dose of art mixed in for good measure. If that weren't enough, it all comes together in that most evocative of settings: Siena, Italy. Winawer's smart debut is a joy to read!"
Library Journal
Will remind historical fiction readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Tracy Chevalier’s The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Lovers of meticulously researched historical fiction and time-travel narratives will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena.”
Kirkus Reviews
The realities of day-to-day existence in 1340s Europe are so viscerally represented that readers will readily accept the fanciful premise.
Shelf Awareness
[A] vivid, compelling debut novel....Winawer renders her story in compelling detail, in Beatrice's whip-smart, observant, often sarcastic voice. Supporting characters in both eras—Ben's neighbor Donata in the present day; the sharp-eyed nun Suor Umiltá in 1347; Gabriele and his family—are also vivid and endearing. The conspiracy is vital as a plot device, but the more resonant theme is Beatrice's deep love for both her centuries and her heartfelt struggle to decide where she belongs.
Bustle
A stunning work of historical fiction, Melodie Winawer's debut novel [is a] story of love, science, politics, and time-travel is worth every last word.
Publishers Weekly
Winawer’s debut is a detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable love....Winawer has created a prodigious, vibrant tale of past and present that transports readers and fills in the historical gaps. This is a marvelous work of research and invention.”
Booklist
An engrossing historical epic. Winawer’s wide-ranging, romantic story moves apace, yet it has considerable meat on its structural bones, with plentiful details on fourteenth-century Sienese daily life, customs, art, and travel.
From the Publisher
Will remind historical fiction readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Tracy Chevalier’s The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Lovers of meticulously researched historical fiction and time-travel narratives will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Winawer’s debut is a detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable love....Winawer has created a prodigious, vibrant tale of past and present that transports readers and fills in the historical gaps. This is a marvelous work of research and invention.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An engrossing historical epic. Winawer’s wide-ranging, romantic story moves apace, yet it has considerable meat on its structural bones, with plentiful details on fourteenth-century Sienese daily life, customs, art, and travel.” —Booklist
“THE SCRIBE OF SIENA is one part historical mystery and one part love story with a captivating dose of art mixed in for good measure. If that weren't enough, it all comes together in that most evocative of settings: Siena, Italy. Winawer's smart debut is a joy to read!" –Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Sisters and The Race for Paris
“[A] vivid, compelling debut novel....Winawer renders her story in compelling detail, in Beatrice's whip-smart, observant, often sarcastic voice. Supporting characters in both eras—Ben's neighbor Donata in the present day; the sharp-eyed nun Suor Umiltá in 1347; Gabriele and his family—are also vivid and endearing. The conspiracy is vital as a plot device, but the more resonant theme is Beatrice's deep love for both her centuries and her heartfelt struggle to decide where she belongs.” —Shelf Awareness
Kirkus Reviews
2017-02-21
A New York neurosurgeon finds herself in medieval Siena facing a career change, plague, and true love.Beatrice Trovato, 33, is ripped from her surgical work by the untimely death of her brother, Ben, a historian who was researching a persistent mystery about his adopted home, Siena, Italy: why, besides misfortune, rats, and fleas, had post-pandemic Siena never quite recovered its prominence as a Tuscan city-state compared to its rival, Florence, which the bubonic plague also attacked? Taking a sabbatical from brain surgery, Beatrice moves into Ben's centuries-old Siena row house and sifts through dusty archives, intent on continuing her brother's quest. While in a church, perusing the journal of early Renaissance fresco master Gabriele Accorsi, she blacks out and somehow (the physics of time travel are not this novel's concern) wakes up in 1347 Siena. There follows an entertaining junket as Beatrice searches for the proper medieval garb (narrowly escaping the Sienese wardrobe police), enjoys the food (Ur-farm-to-table), and communicates fluently with 14th-century Tuscans using modern Italian (linguistic niceties are also not a concern). Her rare, for a woman, literacy skills land Beatrice a job as a scribe at Siena's Ospedale, the local monastery/hospital/poorhouse, where she copies Dante manuscripts, legal contracts, and other documents. She meets Gabriele, who's been hired to paint a religious mural outside her workroom wall. After he rescues her from a monastery fire, their very chaste courtship begins. Accorsi had already imagined her and painted her into other work, which she had puzzled over in the 21st century. When he takes her home to meet his family, they turn out to live in Ben's future house. Meanwhile a subplot reveals more about the enigmas Ben was pursuing—involving the Florentine Medicis. A trip to Sicily, where the plague begins, more time travel, life-threatening illness, and other trials, virtual and literal, ensue before the novel's questions, mainly involving personal lives as opposed to Back to the Future ripple effects, are answered. The realities of day-to-day existence in 1340s Europe are so viscerally represented that readers will readily accept the fanciful premise.
.
