Patricia Furstenberg, Writer of Historical Fiction, Children's Books
Travel via Stories
In fifteenth-century Transylvania, marriage was not a private affair. It was a public instrument. A legal mechanism. A way of (finally) being seen.
Continue reading “A Proven Historical Pressure Cooker: Marriage as Surveillance”
We are creatures of imagination and we understand the world by telling stories about it. Before chronicles hardened into dates and rulers. Before ink fixed memory into law. Stories softened fear, explained loss, they gave shape to grief. In Transylvania, where mountains fold memory into stone and winter teaches patience, stories do not merely entertain. They endure.
Continue reading “If History Forgets, Who Remembers? Hidden Truths in When Secrets Bloom”
Venture through the gates of ages, dare to time-travel and choose one journey to one of the 18 cities where history still breathes. Pick a historical fiction novel from the list below and walk the streets of ancient Rome or Athens; jump into the middle ages in Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Madrid; explore Renaissance in London, Florence, Prague; enjoy early modern life in Amsterdam or Geneva, Victorian Edinburgh or fin-de-siècle Vienna and Venice; read yourself into post-WW1 Moscow, or WW2 Lisbon and Paris, or deep-dive into the historical fiction of Dubrovnik and Budapest as if you belonged there. And if you are ready for more, there’s also a bonus read.
Continue reading “18 Cities to Travel Back in Time and the Historical Fiction Books Opening Their Doors”
On All Saints’ Night, when the veil between the living and the dead grows thin, I return through story to my Transylvanian roots. The Night of Returning Souls, written for Romania Insider is my take on the folklore and ghostly legends that haunt October.
Continue reading “The Night of Returning Souls, It’s All Saints’ Night”
In the frost-bitten winters of 15th-century Transylvania the line between savior and sorceress could be drawn by a whisper. A woman might spend her days easing childbirth pains, binding wounds, or coaxing fevered children back from death only to face the stake by nightfall, accused of witchcraft.
This was the brutal paradox faced by countless women across medieval Europe and perhaps nowhere was it more stark than in the fortified towns of Transylvania, where Saxon, Vlach, Magyar, and Jewish communities shared the safety of walls, but not always trust. Here, a woman’s skill could make her indispensable and dangerous in equal measure.
Continue reading “Transylvanian Witches: from Popular Healers to Hunted Outcasts”