The Venetian Bargain - Marina Fiorato (CD/Spoken Word)

Using her medical knowledge to help the victims of a plague deliberately inflicted on Venice by a vengeful Turkish sultan, harem doctor Feyra catches the attentions of a talented doctor and the architect Andrea Palladio.

Venice, 1576. Five years after the defeat of the OttomanEmpire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing adeadly cargo. A man, more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into PiazzaSan Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the cityis infected with bubonic plague—and the Turkish sultan has his revenge.But the ship also holds a secret stowaway—Feyra, a young andbeautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the sultan's concubine. Only herwits and medical knowledge keep her alive as the plague ravages Venice.In despair, the doge commissions the architect AndreaPalladio to build the greatest church of his career—an offering to God somagnificent that Venice will be saved. But Palladio's life is in danger too,and it will require all the skills of Annibale Cason, the city's finest plaguedoctor, to keep him alive. What Cason had not counted on was meeting Feyra,who is now under Palladio's protection—an impossible woman whose medical skillsand determination are matched only by his own.From Marina Fiorato, author of the acclaimed historical novelThe Glassblower of Murano, comesa triumphant return to historical Venice with The Venetian Bargain.