The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Gabriella Mondini was born in the wrong century. The daughter of a prominent physician in 16th-century Venice, she has trained as a doctor but can’t practise without her father’s patronage. Caught up in what Gabriella believes is the onset of madness, he has forsaken his family, so she embarks on an epic adventure to bring him back to safety and sanity. In each country along her journey she finds new ideas to add to a book of diseases begun by her father — but comes to realize there is no cure for life’s many sorrows.

The Book of Madness and Cures, Regina O’Melveny, $26.