Have you ever read a book that touched, moved and brought you to tears? It may sound dramatic, but with no exaggeration, Roberta Rich’s historical fiction The Midwife of Venice, set against the backdrop of sixteenth-century Italy, is that kind of book for me. (Read the first chapter here and you’ll see what I mean!) I was extremely excited when a lunch invitation with the author was extended to me; I would have the chance to tell her personally how passionate I am about her book!

On February 16, the Doubleday Canada editorial team put together a delicious lunch at our downtown office, in celebration of Roberta Rich. There was lots of great conversation and I honestly can’t remember laughing so much! We all shared stories from childhood, discussing name origins, which was the cause of much laughter. We got to know Roberta better as we listened to her stories – how she found her house in Mexico (houses for sale there are advertised with a peso sign scrawled on the side), how she is currently renting her Vancouver home to movie celebrities (maybe they’ll make a film of her novel one day!), and about her trip to Venice and the Jewish ghetto, the inspiration for The Midwife of Venice. She also shared that the crusty Rabbi in the book was actually loosely modelled on Leon Modena, a notoriously ill-tempered man with such bad luck that Roberta felt he just had to be a character in a novel. Halfway through the lunch, I managed to move closer to Roberta, wanting to finally share with her the impact her book had on me. Even though I cried a little in the telling… okay, I cried a little more than a little… Roberta sweetly thanked me for sharing. I may have imagined it, but it sure looked like she, too, was a little teary.

Roberta Rich is gracious, sweet, funny and so down-to-earth. She is a one-of-a-kind author and I’ll cherish the time I spent with her. I can’t wait for her next book, which, we learned over lunch, will be a page-turning, gasp-inducing continuation of Hannah and Issac’s story … but that’s all I’m saying about that!