Product details
- ISBN 9781472220158
- Weight: 279g
- Dimensions: 132 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jun 2015
- Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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'Brilliantly-observed detail. 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' Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
A gripping historical novel that brings tumultuous medieval Europe to life. Not to be missed by readers of Hilary Mantel, Peter Ackroyd and C. J. Sansom.
Johann Gutenberg's first printed Bibles amazed and shocked medieval Europe. He had started a revolution that would one day put books in the hands of any man or woman who wanted them. The project was fraught with danger, for it threatened the power of politicians and the Catholic church.
Who was this Gutenberg? In Alix Christie's evocative and compelling novel, he comes vividly to life - driven, caustic and ruthless. Behind him stands a brilliant young scribe, Peter Schoeffer, whose genius is to stay true to his artistic values in the cauldron of the printer's workshop. Caught between the old ways and the new, the two men struggle with one another and the world outside to prevail against overwhelming obstacles... and change history.
'A lovely piece of work: finely researched and beautifully, atmospherically, written' Sarah Dunant
A semifinalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.
Alix Christie is a journalist and writer who has lived in the USA, Paris and Berlin and is now settled in London with her husband and two children. She has been a reporter and foreign correspondent for many years, and has published widely in major international media, from the Washington Post and the Guardian to the San Francisco Chronicle and Salon.com; she regularly reviews books and arts for The Economist. In the late 1990s she began writing fiction, publishing short stories in the Southwest Review and Other Voices. Gutenberg's Apprentice is her first novel.
Alix spent five years researching the background to Gutenberg's Apprentice. A passionate printer herself, she brought her personal experience to her vivid descriptions of the travails of the early printers in the novel.
www.gutenbergsapprentice.com
