The Witch of Cologne

Set against the backdrop of emerging Enlightenment Europe, this is a fast-paced, meticulously researched and beautifully written story. Tobsha Learner is the author of the sensational bestseller Quiver. This is the story of Ruth bas Elazar Saul, a Jewish midwife who returns to her home of Deutz, outside Cologne in Germany. Imbued with the radical ideas of Spinoza and with the ancient Hebrew Kabbalism, Ruth's revolutionary methods of dealing with illness lead to accusations of witchcraft and imprisonment.Her love affair with Detleff von Tennen, a local Catholic bishop, may save her in the short term, but at a time of brutal repression and religious persecution there are few options for those who break taboos. "...a story of passionate love that defies the social, political, cultural and religious mores of its day - seventeenth-century Europe. The novel brilliantly portrays this harsh and brutal time, an age rife with superstition ..." - Good Reading Magazine Praise for Tobsha Learner: "She is sharp-eyed, literate, socially aware, brave, sardonic and unabashed." - The Australian