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Harper
October 2014
On Sale: September 23, 2014
Featuring: Johann Gutenberg; Johann Fust; Peter Schoeffer
416 pages
ISBN: 0062336010
EAN: 9780062336019
Kindle: B00HLIYY2E
Hardcover / e-Book
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Paperback (September 2015)
Fiction
An enthralling literary debut that evokes one of the most
momentous events in history, the birth of printing in
medieval Germany—a story of invention, intrigue, and
betrayal, rich in atmosphere and historical detail, told
through the lives of the three men who made it possible. Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of
professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster
father, wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust,
summons
him home to corrupt, feud-plagued Mainz to meet “a most
amazing man.” Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has
devised
a revolutionary—and to some, blasphemous—method of
bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is
financing Gutenberg’s workshop and he orders Peter, his
adopted son, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. Resentful
at
having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter
begins his education in the “darkest art.” As his skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for
Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture:
copies
of the Holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties and the
crushing power of the Catholic Church threaten their work.
As outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself
torn between two father figures: the generous Fust, who
saved him from poverty after his mother died; and the
brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to
achieve his own mastery. Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways
and
the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together
to
prevail against overwhelming obstacles—a battle that will
change history . . . and irrevocably transform them.
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