Cities of Women Audiobook

In the twenty-first century, we meet Verity Frazier, a disillusioned history professor who sets out to prove that the artist responsible for the illuminated artwork in Christine de Pizan’s medieval manuscripts was a remarkable woman named Anastasia. As Anastasia’s story unfolds against the exquisitely-rendered medieval backdrop of moral disaster, political intrigue, and extraordinary creativity, Verity finds her career on the brink of collapse by her efforts to uncover evidence of the lost artist’s existence. A deeply affecting dual narrative separated by several centuries, Cities of Women examines the lives of women who dare to challenge the social norms of their days, risking their reputations and livelihoods for the sake of their passions. Inspired by a decade of research, Kathleen B. Jones has woven together a luminous and incisive masterpiece of historical fiction, evoking the spare joys and monumental pitfalls facing medieval women artists and a contemporary woman who becomes obsessed with medieval books.

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Three talented narrators transport listeners from the 14th to the 21st century as Jones’s novel reveals the struggles of women to be seen and heard throughout history [...] Mia Barron brings the historical figure Christine de Pizan to life as she gains success as a poet and court writer in the medieval French court of Charles VI. Barron gives her a powerful voice as she fights to be recognized. Lauren Ezzo brings listeners into the 21st century as she gives Verity a strong voice in her quest to prove the female identity of the illuminator of de Pizan’s writings.

— Audiofile Magazine