A Poisoner's Tale
A Novel (A Retelling of the Life of Giulia Tofana, Aqua Tofana Poisoner of Rome)
by Cathryn Kemp
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Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen when she learns her mother greatest secret: Teofania makes an undetectable, slow-acting, lethal poison—Acqua Tofana—which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon realizes that in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine or broth.
Rome, 1656: Years later, within the alleys and shadows of the Eternal City, Giulia forms her own circle of female poisoners, who work together under the guise of an apothecary shop to sell poison to women in need.
But even in a time of plague, when death looms over the city, it doesn’t go unnoticed that the men of Rome are starting to fall like flies. And with the newly elected pope determined to rid the city of witches and heretics, Giulia is more vulnerable than ever. How far is she willing to go to continue her mother’s legacy?
Weaving together the stories of the women Giulia helped, the men she killed, and those who wanted her dead, this is a tale of magic, secrets, vengeance, and sin in the back streets of Rome—and, ultimately, a fight for power.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 4, 2025 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781454957478
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781454957478
- File size: 12453 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 1, 2025
DEBUT In her first work of fiction, ghostwriter and memoirist Kemp (Coming Clean) conjures a tale set in 17th-century Italy, based on the life of Giulia Tofana, who, as a girl, learns the art of poison from her mother as they concoct Acqua Tofana, an arsenic-based potion her mother sells to women in abusive marriages who have no power and no recourse. Kemp fills the gaps in the historical record of Giulia's story, one in which she and her mother arrive in Palermo when a suitor removes her mother from a life of sex work. Teenage Giulia is sexually assaulted by her stepfather. As an adult, she travels to Rome and continues her mother's work as a poisoner. Kemp's evocative writing draws readers into dark Roman alleyways, a city suffering from plague, and a world of women helping other women. Despite Giulia's understandable motive for assisting in the murder of these husbands, her actions read somewhat one-dimensional as the narrative progresses. A single-mindedness of purpose leads Giulia to ill-advised choices that put both her and her inner circle in peril. VERDICT Kemp's deeply researched story pulls in readers, but its narrator stretches the bounds of sympathy and credulity.--Jessica Epstein
Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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February 1, 2025
The roles allotted to women in Renaissance Europe are very limited, and even the coveted position of wife comes with peril. When Giulia's mother teaches her to concoct acqua, a poison for women needing to escape violent husbands, they cannot anticipate how skilled Giulia will become at this work--or the tragic consequences that result from it. Years later, Giulia is a single woman (a pariah in 1600s Rome), anonymously moving through the shadows with her own daughter and friends, sharing their poison with ordinary, powerless women. But when their poison kills a duke and a cardinal, they become caught in the crosshairs of a new pope determined to root out witchcraft and sorcery. Despite the inevitable outcome, readers will be caught up in the mounting tension as the pope's network of spies closes in. Kemp's debut novel effectively portrays the seething underbelly of Rome and powerfully emphasizes the way gender and class sharply circumscribed the existence of women of the time. A worthy addition to the body of Renaissance historical fiction.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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