THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES

In sixteenth-century Venice, Gabriella Mondini’s beloved but unstable father, a doctor, has gone traveling and disappeared. In spite of piteous complaints from her self-centered mother, Gabriella, who is her father’s confidante and colleague in medicine, sets off across Europe and North Africa to find him. Traveling as a woman in those times was not for sissies, and O’Melveny has done her homework thoroughly, bringing to life the sights and smells, pleasures and terrors that accompany Gabriella on her quest. Her single-mindedness borders on the obsessive, not as attractive a trait as filial devotion, but O’Melveny’s writing is persuasive, and Katherine Kellgren’s very beautiful and artful narration, which weaves a tapestry of voices, male and female, in all the accents of the continent, makes this a book of marvels. B.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2012]