The Physician's Tale » (Reprint)

Ann Benson lives in Connecticut with her husband and is the mother of two grown daughters. She is also the author of the acclaimed novels The Plague Tales, The Burning Road, and Thief of Souls.

Sweeping us from plague-ravaged Europe to the terrifying near future, acclaimed author Ann Benson brings two eras brilliantly to life. The Physician’s Tale is a spellbinding saga of two healers separated by six centuries, both facing terror and trials, bound together by history, science, and destiny.

In the near future, in the hills of the American Northeast, a group of men, women, and children band together for survival against nature and human enemies, huddling in the only corner of the world they know. Among these people is Janie Crowe, a physician whose son is her greatest hope and deepest secret. Etched into Janie’s memory is the ancient journal of a Jewish man of medicine–a man who fought for survival in his own age of plague.

In Europe, in the age of the Black Death, Alejandro Canches must hide his identity–and break his oath as a physician for the sake of his and his loved ones’ lives. As France and England are locked in war, and disease lays waste to both, Alejandro’s daughter Kate is caught in the clutches of King Edward of England. Betrayed by a patient, hunted by the king, Alejandro makes a desperate journey to Windsor itself, where a clever scribe named Geoffrey Chaucer has hatched a fantastic plan for Kate’s escape....

As the story of Alejandro and his family builds to a gripping climax, and as Janie’s life is racked by trials and the dawning of a new age, The Physician’s Tale brings together a rich cast of friends and lovers, traitors and healers. Unraveling mysteries of science, history, and the human heart, Ann Benson has created a stunning chronicle of courage in the face of darkness–in a work of vibrant storytelling and unrelenting suspense.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Benson's stirring fourth thriller to interweave past and near future (after 2002's The Thief of Souls), a bioterror attack by a cabal of fundamentalists known as the Coalition has decimated the U.S., and scattered bands of survivors struggle to keep going. The action then shifts from 21st-century America to 14th-century Europe, where the black death continues to ravage England and France. In both periods, Benson illuminates the challenges, physical and moral, that disease poses to her heroes-Dr. Janie Crowe in the near future, and Dr. Alejandro Canches in the past-as they each attempt to protect their loved ones and stay true to their professional ethics. While the plot twist connecting the two eras may strike some as a bit much, readers will be pleasantly reminded of similar works by P.D. James and John Christopher. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.