Breakaway Books

Authored by Elizabeth DeLozier; Published September 2024; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

The bravery of a person who feels called to heal in the midst of a pandemic is an inspiration—it was just as true in COVID-19 as it was in the Black Plague. Eleanor of Avignon is a depiction of one such person.

Eleanor of Avignon follows the titular young woman as she becomes assistant to the chief surgeon for Pope Clement in fourteenth-century Avignon. When the black plague descends on the country, Eleanor and Guigo, her mentor, do everything they can to discover where the disease came from and how they can treat it. But as the pandemic rages, fear intensifies as well, prompting religious zealots to hunt down Jewish residents… and women like Eleanor.

Eleanor’s passion for taking care of patients comes through from the very first page of the novel. In spite of the fact that her mother suffered because of her medical work and that Eleanor will have to fight tooth and nail to get training, she is filled with joy at the thought of helping the sick. That type of joy and clarity is infectious, and it made me wonder: How can I serve my fellow humans? What would make me feel as alive as Eleanor even in the midst of the plague? I chuckled at the amount that Eleanor, an herbalist trained at her mother’s knee, was able to teach the most highly educated physicians on the European continent, who still figure their treatments based on the position of Junior and Saturn. Equally, I was unsurprised but still aggrieved that her competence led to both her and her mother being accused of witchcraft. 

The author’s description of the panic caued by the pandemic and the utter helplessness of the doctors effortlessly brought to mind the era of COVID-19 and how much we love to have a scapegoat for tragedies that we can’t control. The black plague was so much more graphic than our recent pandemic, and I cringed often at the descriptions of even the treatments for the illness, feeling cognizant of my breathing and the germs it can spread. But I also felt a deep disgust for the priest that so easily channeled the fear of the people toward helpless victims—and easily recognized the parallels to what is happening today. It made the priest among the most wicked villains I have seen.

If you are still feeling scarred from COVID-19, this may not be the novel for you. But if you want to be inspired by doctors who were dedicated to doing all they could even when knowledge failed them, pick up Eleanor of Avignon.