The Bones You Have Cast Down

"Enchanting and richly historical, dazzling and dark, heart-wrenching and intoxicating." — Stuart. R. Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot

Italy, 1446. When the duchess of Milan chooses a new lady-in-waiting, Taria is swept from a convent orphanage into the most glamorous, glittering — and treacherous — court in Renaissance Italy. Lowborn in a highborn circle, with neither family nor fortune at her back, Taria has only on her wits and her heart to rely on. Never has she felt so alone, and so vulnerable. 

Then she finds a secret. A long-buried tarot card of a female pope gives her the ability to time-slip to a village 150 years previous. There, she meets the joyful followers of Guglielma, a holy woman adored as a female incarnation of the Holy Spirit, yet mysteriously, ominously, unknown in Taria's present time. 

As Taria travels back and forth in time, her long-ago friends become to her the family she's always craved. But the past offers no escape from a devastating revelation that shakes Taria's courage and defies the faith she has held for her entire life. 

Guglielma's devotees have drawn the hostility of the Inquisition. And the inquisitors are closing in. 

Inspired by the true story of the Popess tarot card, The Bones You Have Cast Down evokes long-ago times not unlike our own: when the keepers of faith conspired against the faithful, and the rich and powerful embraced war and corruption, even while fostering works of artistic brilliance revered to this day.

"This is the kind of book I love: solid history with a touch of magic." — Sherryl E. Smith, Tarot Heritage

PRAISE for THE BONES YOU HAVE CAST DOWN

The Bones You Have Cast Down transported me to Italy at the dawn of the Renaissance, and into the heart of a young woman who's deceptively quiet, extraordinarily spirited. From the hand-painted tarot cards to lavish festivities set amidst the misery of war, from cathedrals to village churches, Jean Huets brings alive this paradoxical time. The Bones You Have Cast Down is enchanting and richly historical, as well as dazzling and dark, heart-wrenching and intoxicating. — Stuart R. Kaplan, author of The Encyclopedia of Tarot

A well written book with an intriguing story and an element of magic. Adults and teens alike will be drawn to this historical novel. — Cary Meltzer Frostick, reviewer for School Library Journal and Youth Services librarian

Jean Huets' riveting account suggests the amazing charisma that both Guglielma and Maifreda must have had to attract such devotion, and at such a cost. I will certainly recommend it to my friends. — Barbara Newman, Professor of English, Religious Studies, and Classics at Northwestern University and author of From Virile Woman to WomanChrist

A storytelling treasure. Huets transports the reader into the mind of a young fifteenth-century Italian with all the assurance and intimacy which one expects of a modern bard. The sights, smells, feel of Renaissance Italy seep from every pore of the story. The Inquisition lurks in the shadows. Speculative elements are deftly melded into the mix.… Thought provoking as well as entertaining. — Ron Andre, A Matter of Fancy