IU South Bend’s Sherwood touring with third novel

Sherwood’s fantasy novel, based on a real-life emperor and a rabbi whose scholarship is still highly respected today, is enriched with astronomers, alchemists, spies, lepers, monks and a charlatan or two. In 17th-century Prague, there is court intrigue and political tension in the conflict among the rival Islamic Ottoman Empire, the newly hatched Protestant movement, the established church and Czech nationalism.

Photo by Frederick Slaski Sherwood

Fran Sherwood, a professor of English at Indiana University South Bend, is the author of Book of Splendor, published this month by W.W. Norton. Her third novel has been greeted with high praise from critics. The author is on a book tour through the summer and next week will be appearing in South Bend, St. Louis, Cleveland and Ann Arbor (check listings at end of this story for dates and locations).

Sherwood also is the author of the novels Green and Vindication, and a collection of stories entitled Everything You've Heard is True.

Book of Splendor takes place in 1601, in Prague, during the reign of the Hapsburg emperor, Rudolph II. Rudolph wants eternal youth and the lovely Rochel as his mistress. Rochel's chance to escape poverty comes in an arranged marriage to the comfortable but homely tailor Zev. However, her heart belongs to Yossel, an imaginary character in Jewish folklore who is created to protect the Jewish community. The emperor demands that the famous rabbi, Judah Loew, provide an elixir for immortality. His mania ignites long-standing resentments with his anti-Semitic foes. There is court intrigue and political tension in the conflict among the rival Islamic Ottoman Empire, the newly hatched Protestant movement, the established church and Czech nationalism. The book is enriched with astronomers, alchemists, spies, lepers, monks and a charlatan or two.

Sherwood, who joined the IUSB Department of English in 1986, said the book has been a wonderful journey for her. "I first visited Prague in the summer of 1995 when I was teaching in the Prague Summer Writing Program. The city was overwhelming in its beauty and much the same way it was in 1601. In my first novel, Vindication, I fell in love with a person. With this book, I fell in love with a place. The book is kind of a fairy tale or historical fantasy."

Vindication was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1993. Other literary awards received by Sherwood include two O. Henry Awards and a nomination for a Nebula Award. Her work also is included in Best American Short Stories 2000.

Book tour dates and places: Monday, July 22, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo.; Tuesday, July 23, 7 p.m., University of Notre Dame Bookstore, South Bend; Wednesday, July 24, 8 p.m., Shaman Drum, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Thursday, July 25, 7 p.m., Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cleveland, Ohio; Saturday, Sept. 7, 2 p.m., Barnes and Noble, 3748 E. 82nd St., Indianapolis; and Sunday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m., Barnes and Noble, 4601 Grape Road, Mishawaka.