The Queen's Apprenticeship in Spanish, and The War Within Me forthcoming

By Tracy Ryan

Back in late 2023, I posted about my first historical novel (my sixth novel, but first in that genre), The Queen's Apprenticeship, being published with Transit Lounge. It intertwines the third-person narrative of a real-life figure, Marguerite de Navarre, with that of a completely imagined character from a very different background whose first-person tale Marguerite is reading, embedding one story within the other...

In late 2024, the Spanish edition of that novel appeared with Ediciones Maeva, for any of you who read Spanish — or know somebody who does, and who might like historical fiction set in sixteenth-century France. It's translated by Carlos Milla and Isabel Ferrer. 

Cover design by Opalworks Barcelona

I already loved the Transit Lounge cover featuring a portrait of Marguerite de Navarre — I'm just as taken with the very different Spanish one, bringing together as it does the two protagonists, one a privileged royal woman and the other a young printer's apprentice named Jehane/Josse (there are identity changes through Jehane/Josse's story).

I'm excited to say that in June this year the next book, Book Two in my Queens of Navarre trilogy will also be appearing with Transit Lounge — The War Within Me.

This second historical novel takes up the story of Marguerite's daughter, Jeanne d'Albret — it's not a biography, but "biographical historical fiction" following her journey from childhood through to the French Wars of Religion (Civil Wars) in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

Here is a cover preview of The War Within Me: 

Cover design by Peter Lo, using a portrait of Jeanne
by an artist of the school of François Clouet

Though readers of the first novel will find connections in this one, it's able to be read as a standalone.

Book Three is still to come! That is the story of Marguerite de Valois ("Queen Margot"), the next Queen of Navarre.

Rachel Watts recently reviewed the first novel in Westerly online.

Other responses to Book 1, The Queen's Apprenticeship:

"a triumphant foray into historical fiction… a compelling exploration of patriarchy, privilege and resistance in Renaissance France, set amid a vividly sketched milieu … with convincing fictional characters."

— Cheryl Akle, The Australian

"the brilliant depth of character we want when reading historical fiction … a buoyancy of storytelling." — Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald

The Queen's Apprenticeship is now out: a historical novel of Marguerite de Navarre and 16th-century France

 By Tracy

“An enthralling novel of passion, literature and power, bringing to vivid life the story of Marguerite de Navarre – an ardent defender of the arts – and in doing so also giving voice to those who were often disregarded in the dramas of the time.”

 —Dominique Wilson, author of Orphan Rock and The Yellow Papers

If you like reading novels set in and around the Tudor court, you might be interested in stories about their counterparts on the other side of the Channel... those who lived in some of the great châteaux of the Loire and in other parts of France – as well as the working people who didn’t.

 

My new novel The Queen’s Apprenticeship is out this month from Transit Lounge in Australia. You can also get it as an ebook in other countries. It’s the first book in a trilogy of historical fiction set in 16^th-century France — and Navarre.

 

The Queen’s Apprenticeship blends the imaginary story of a young outcast who wants to be a printer’s apprentice with the true(r) story of the writer-queen Marguerite de Navarre, sister to King Francis the First, and protector of many people in France whose thinking fell dangerously outside religious norms of the period.

 

Marguerite wrote poems, drama and fiction, but is best known for her book of tales The Heptameron, a compelling mix of gender politics, spiritual questioning and bawdy, even scatological humour – an unforgettable read.

 

Marguerite de Navarre

As the publisher’s blurb for my novel explains, “Long before #MeToo, women were telling their ‘unspeakable’ stories, and these two, both rich and poor, are no exception. They come together in the most unexpected of ways.”

 

The second book in this Queens of Navarre trilogy, The War Within Me, will also be published by Transit Lounge. It tells the story of Marguerite’s daughter, Jeanne d’Albret, during the period of France’s Civil Wars (also called Wars of Religion).

Marguerite's daughter Jeanne d'Albret

Jeanne appears as a child in the later part of the first book; the second book is a fictionalised version of her life and her struggles for the Calvinist cause, as well as her tussles with Catherine de Medici and other players in the turbulence of her times.

 

For more information about the writing and research behind these books, there is a blog about The Queen’s Apprenticeship as well as one about The War Within Me.

 

 

 

Publisher Transit Lounge also has Reading Group Notes on their website for the first in the trilogy.