Publisher's Synopsis
"richly detailed, expertly paced saga of the only female student attending a prestigious medical school in Italy...a truly captivating heroine, for then and for now." --Sally Cabot Gunning, author of The Widow's Warand Painting the Light From the USA Todaybestselling author of The Girl in His Shadowcomes a riveting historical fiction novel about the women in medicine who changed the world forever. Women's work is a matter of life and death. Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her. Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous proced
