Ocean State Libraries

Scotland, 1477: Nicholas de Fleury, former banker and merchant, has re-appeared in the land that, four years earlier, he had brought very close to ruin in the course of an intense commercial and personal war with secret enemies—and, indeed, with his clever wife Gelis.
Now the opportunity for redemption is at hand, but Nicholas soon finds himself pursuing his objectives amid a complex, corrosive power struggle centering on the Scottish royal...

Peter Bruegel's paintings---a peasant wedding in a barn, hunters in the snow, a rollicking street festival, and many others---have long defined our idea of everyday life in sixteenth century Europe. They are classic icons of a time and place in much the same way as Norman Rockwell's depictions of twentieth-century America. We know relatively little about Bruegel, but after years of research, novelist Rudy Rucker has built upon what is known and has...

"Flanders, 1915. David Verbocht, sentenced to death as a deserter, stands before the firing squad and looks back on his short life. As a young man, David was sent away by his parents, after a tragic accident in the family, to become a schoolteacher in a remote village. There he develops a special bond with a sensitive young student, along with feelings for the boy's mother. When fate strikes again, the history of loss and guilt seems to repeat itself."...