City of Crows by Chris Womersley

From award-winning author Chris Womersley comes an extraordinary historical novel set in seventeenth-century Paris
"One of the unrepentantly daring and original talents in the landscape of Australian fiction" Sydney Morning Herald
A woman's heart contains all things ...
France, 1673. Desperate to save herself and her only surviving child from an outbreak of plague, the widow Charlotte Picot flees her village to seek sanctuary in Lyon.
But, waylaid on the road by slavers, young Nicolas is stolen and his mother left for dead. Charlotte fears the boy has been taken to Paris for sale, for it is well known there is no corruption in a man's heart that cannot be found in that terrible City of Crows.
Yet this is not only a story of Paris and its streets thronged with preachers, troubadours and rogues. It is also the tale of a woman who calls herself a sorceress and a demon who thinks he is a man ...
MORE PRAISE FOR CITY OF CROWS

"Womersley is an astute observer of human nature; his dialogue is sharp; his prose sings. His seventeenth-century Paris is a stinking cesspool of debauchery: Hieronymus Bosch in literary form. This book is fabulous." Readings
"Rooted in historical fact this is a novel that entrances you, bewitches you and keeps you thoroughly enthralled." Pages & Pages