The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back

Written by Jess Wells

Narrated by Jess Wells

In 1465 a simple pocketful of herbs could get you burned at the stake, but Luccia Alimenti, daughter of one of the legendary women doctors called Salernistas, travels Europe secretly distributing medical texts to midwives and herbalists. Despite dodging the Inquisition and battling the Plague with her beloved Irish godmother, Luccia finds love as well as heartbreak. Pushed to the edge, however, she must use her skill as an archer to rescue women being taken to the pyre.

With a long life extended by a potion from her mother, Luccia becomes a scribe, witness to the shift in power with the invention of moveable type. As an illustrator and apothecary, she joins forces with Paracelsus, the rebellious eunuch and father of modern chemistry, joining old knowledge with new, despite his being hunted by colleagues and the Church. Based on extensive research of historical events and actual remedies, this novel has been called “tremendously involving and impressive.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Library B Books
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822629523

Jess Wells

Jess Wells is the author of six novels and five volumes of short stories, as well as being the recipient of a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature, a member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame, a four-time finalist for the national Lambda Literary Award and a finalist for the 2020 Foreword Reviews Indies Award. Her work is included in dozens of anthologies and has been translated into Dutch and Italian, as well as republished in British editions. She regularly blogs on under-represented women, and the writing life, at http://www.jesswells.com