The Enterprise of Death

A Renaissance-era Moorish slave finds love and adventure in her quest to break a necromancer’s curse in this historical fantasy.“Beautifully balancing putridity, profanity, and poignancy, Bullington renders The Enterprise of Death resonant and achingly human—even as it brims with the unhuman.” —A.V. ClubAs the witch-pyres of the Spanish Inquisition blanket Renaissance Europe in a moral haze, a young African slave finds herself the unwilling apprentice of an ancient necromancer. Unfortunately, quitting his company proves even more hazardous than remaining his pupil when she is afflicted with a terrible curse. Yet salvation may lie in a mysterious tome her tutor has hidden somewhere on the war-torn continent.She sets out on a seemingly impossible journey to find the book, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, the alchemist Dr. Paracelsus, and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary. As Manuel paints her macabre story on canvas, plank, and church wall, the young apprentice becomes increasingly aware that death might be the least of her concerns.“Bullington . . . bounces almost giddily between gruesome and tongue-in-cheek, from more horrific aspects of raising the dead to the odd problems faced by a necromancer with a conscience. Spiritual terror, Awa’s star-crossed loves, and Manuel’s guilt over becoming a mercenary to pay for art supplies are all grist for a relentless dark humor blended with occasional tragedy.” —Publishers Weekly