The Harem Midwife A Novel [Paperback]

An opulent, riveting, and suspenseful continuation of the thrilling historical novelTheMidwife of Veniceset in medieval Constantinople.

AN OPULENT, CAPTIVATING, AND SUSPENSEFUL HISTORICAL NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE THRILLING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERTHE MIDWIFE OF VENICE

The Imperial Harem, Constantinople, 1578. Hannah and Isaac Levi, Venetians in exile, have overcome unfathomable obstacles to begin life anew in the Ottoman Empire. He works in the growing silk trade, and she, the best midwife in the capital, tends to the hundreds of women in Sultan Murat III’s lively and infamous harem. One night, Hannah is unexpectedly sum­moned to the extravagant palace and confronted with Leah, a Jewish peasant girl who was violently abducted. The sultan favors Leah as his next conquest and wants her to produce his heir, but if the spirited girl fails an important test, she faces a terrible fate. Taken by Leah’s tenacity, Hannah risks everything to help her. But as Hannah agonizes over her decision, an enchanting stranger arrives from afar to threaten her peaceful life with Isaac, and soon Leah too reveals a dark secret that could condemn them both.

Filled with adventure and vivid detail and peopled with memorable charac­ters,The Harem Midwifeshowcases Roberta Rich’s boundless talent for cap­turing readers’ imaginations.The Harem Midwife

CHAPTER 1

Village of Kas

CIRCASSIAN MOUNTAINS

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

1578

ONE SPRING MORNING as the sun dappled the rocks with golden light, drying the dew from the night before, making the world look as scrubbed and as fleecy as a cloud, Leah made a blunder that was to lead to her death. It was a small thing—a matter ofl3;