The Powder of Kings
La Poudre des rois

In mid-thirteenth-century Andalusia, the medical art as practiced by Arab and Jewish masters has made considerable progress, while in the Kingdom of France one still believes that the insane have a stone of madness in their heads. Despite this new science, an epidemic among rich Seville merchants remains inexplicable. Why do the fevers only attack men who fifteen years earlier had embarked on a merchant ship headed for the Orient? An old medical master, assisted by his two young disciples, looks into this enigma which quickly moves beyond the realm of the medical.

The writer and translator Thierry Maugenest spent many years in Italy and now lives in Provence. His first novel, Venise.net, has been very well received.