A01=Dawn Patitucci
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aristocracy
Author_Dawn Patitucci
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Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FB
Category=FV
COP=United States
Countess of Walther
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
dwarfs
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eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
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historical fiction
historical literary fiction
Language_English
Las Meninas (Velazquez)
literary fiction
Maria-Barbara
Maribarbola of Spain
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
prophets
PS=Active
self-determination
softlaunch
stories about aristocrats
stories about dwarfs
survival
traveling magicians
Velazquez
Product details
- ISBN 9781683366829
- Dimensions: 139 x 215mm
- Publication Date: 14 Dec 2017
- Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Inspired by Velázquez’s baroque masterpiece, Las Meninas, The Queen’s Prophet is an imagined account of the dwarfess Maribarbola of Spain (featured prominently in Velázquez’s painting) and her struggle for survival and self-determination at a time when dwarfs were kept by aristocracy as pets, prophets, and good luck charms.
When the Countess of Walther dies at her German estate, her loyal dwarfess Maria-Barbara is forced to work as a prophet for a traveling magician, who betrays her by selling her to the Queen of Spain. At the royal court in Madrid, Mari finds herself in a bizarre, enchanted world, a society culturally splendid but intellectually isolated. There she becomes Maribarbola, prophet to the Queen, and, her survival at stake, endeavors to outsmart the Spaniards.
Mari's wits and loyalties are tested as she becomes embroiled in palace intrigue alongside the politically embattled Queen. When Mari's carefully schemed prophecies dazzle all of Spain, she and the Queen climb to dizzying heights of power, a place as intoxicating as it is dangerous. But even as Mari survives and thrives at the Spanish court, the loss of identity she suffers from living a lie makes her question whether she is really surviving at all.
Dawn Patitucci has lived her entire life in the Chicago area and is a long-time college professor in computer science. She is a Germanophile, a power-tool-wielding handywoman, and an orange male cat enthusiast. The Queen's Prophet is her debut novel.
