"A finely atmospheric debut...Christie's novel is a worthy tribute to
the technological revolution it reimagines, as well as a haunting elegy
to the culture of print...One thinks of Donna Tartt's obsessive accounts
of furniture decoration in The Goldfinch or even Philip Roth's
lovingly twisted empathy with glovemaker Swede Levov in American
Pastoral. Such novels of craft and specialization take a writerly
delight in the most intricate details of a particular trade while
spinning rich prose out of its mysterious threads." -- Washington
Post
An enthralling literary novel that evokes one of the most momentous
events in history, the birth of printing in medieval Germany--a story of
invention, intrigue, and betrayal, rich in atmosphere and historical
detail, told through the lives of the three men who made it possible.
Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional
success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, wealthy merchant
and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corrupt, feud-plagued
Mainz to meet "a most amazing man."
Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a
revolutionary--and to some, blasphemous--method of bookmaking: a machine
he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg's workshop and he
orders Peter, his adopted son, to become Gutenberg's apprentice.
Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter
begins his education in the "darkest art."
As his skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for Gutenberg and his
dedication to their daring venture: copies of the Holy Bible. But
mechanical difficulties and the crushing power of the Catholic Church
threaten their work. As outside forces align against them, Peter finds
himself torn between two father figures: the generous Fust, who saved
him from poverty after his mother died; and the brilliant, mercurial
Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.
Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new,
Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against
overwhelming obstacles--a battle that will change history . . . and
irrevocably transform them.
