The Stone Witch of Florence with Anna Rasche

Come spend a magical evening with Anna Rasche and Emily Thiede in the store!

About the Book:

A woman's secret. A deadly Plague. Unleash the hidden magic…

1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

Ginevra obliges, assuming the city’s leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amid a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different mission: she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence’s churches for priceless relics—the city’s only hope for protection. If she succeeds, she’ll be a recognized physician and never accused of witchcraft again.

But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she’s merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she’s been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won’t think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want…

About the Author:

Anna Rasche is a historian and gemologist who has previously worked in the jewelry collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as a curatorial fellow at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Rasche's debut is based on original research she conducted on the uses of gemstones in medieval medicine at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and on site in Italy. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and infant daughter.

EMILY THIEDE is the author of This Vicious Grace and This Cursed Light. A former public school teacher, Emily now serves on the board for WriterHouse, a local writing nonprofit. When she's not writing, she loves fostering kittens and exploring the forests in Central Virginia where she lives with her family. You can find her across social media @EKTWrites and at www.ekthiede.com.

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