I received The Midwife of Venice as a free giveaway from Goodreads. The book I received was an uncorrected proof and will be on sale Feb. 2011. I don't think I've included any spoilers but reader beware! and I apologize if I've ruined something for you.

I enjoy a good historical fiction, although Italy and the 1600s are not what I would normally pick up. Oh, and I LOVE a happy ending! I thoroughly liked this book, it was easy to read with only a few sentences in Italian (which I found easy to translate). This story gives excellent detail of the environment of the Jewish ghetto, canals, and homes. It includes details of the ignorance and hatred between the Jews and Christians and of course the practices of midwifery in the 1600s.

Short summary:
Hannah, a Jewish midwife delivers a baby of a Christian noble. Hannah breaks the law by leaving the ghetto at night and by attending a Christian during a birth. She takes the risk to earn the money she needs to free her husband, Isaac, who was taken and made a slave in Malta.
Hannah ends up witnessing the kidnapping of the baby by his uncle and saves the child from being murdered. She seeks the help of her sister to keep the child safe from his Uncles until the parents return home. The plague ends up killing the parents so Hannah takes the child a boat to fetch her husband.
The book switches from Hannah's story to Isaac's story. Which includes how Isaac survives, a Nun who tries to convert him, how he writes letters for everyone in the community for profit and his attempt at escaping the island.