Reviews

A lovely piece of work: finely researched and beautifully, atmospherically, written. I learned a huge amount from it, though never at any point did I feel I was being ‘taught’ – in my view the test of really good historical novel

A sophisticated, moving story of the creation of the Gutenberg Bible…Christie provides a powerful portrait of the intense, irascible and egotistical Gutenberg, but her novel’s real strength lies in its depiction of [the scribe Peter] Schoeffer, drawn unwillingly into the struggle to build a new technology, yet eventually becoming its most committed advocate.

Full of intrigue, jealousy and betrayal…a rich drama. (Christie) presents medieval fears of the printing press with modern sensibility.

By juxtaposing the lexicon of traditional printing with reference to modern concepts like intellectual property theft, Christie spotlights intriguing parallels between 15th-century Europe and the digital media of the 21st-century world.

 

An inspiring tale of ambition, camaraderie, betrayal, and cultural transformation based on actual events and people, this wonderful novel fully inhabits its age.

A deep, immersive recreation of a pivotal moment in history and a bold exploration of an eternal theme: the madness, rivalry, torment and ecstasy of creation.

If ever there were a historical novel with up-to-the-minute resonance, this is it. As we go through another information revolution, Christie’s novel takes us back in brilliantly-observed detail to the first – the invention of the printing press. Her characters are engaging, the world as beautifully crafted as one of Gutenberg’s hot-metal letters, and the themes more relevant now than ever.

A rich, evocative tale of the birth of Gutenberg’s printing press and the young scribe who found himself swept up in the invention.

This ambitious but beautifully executed historical novel captures the life and times of half a millennium ago, and with the above parallels, draws us closer to today’s publishing revolution.

As beautifully written as the printed pages it describes, this is an intelligent, masterful novel that immerses the reader in a fascinating historical time and place.