The Blood Remembers

by Terry Stanfill

Rose Kirkland, a jewelry designer living in Santa Monica, struggles with a troubled marriage and her inability to have a child. In the midst of these tensions, she is startled by a mysterious inner voice, that of a young woman sent by her family to marry a man she has never met. Slowly and startlingly, Rose begins to realize that the voice is her own--a persona from a richly cultured past life, its presence so compelling it permeates the present. With her husband's approval, Rose travels to Europe to trace the origins of the voice. While on her journey she inadvertently unravels a mystery surrounding the medieval emperor, Frederick II and the legendary king, Prester John. The quest leads Rose to Oxford, England, to Vieste, her father's birthplace on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy, and finally to Pirou Castle in Normandy, France, where Rose discovers a link to her own reality as past and present fuse in an odyssey of desire and self-discovery.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Terry Stanfill, born Therese Olivieri in West Haven, Connecticut, is a first generation American of Italian descent. She received a degree in English Literature with a minor in Medieval History from the University of Connecticut.

Terry’s husband, Dennis, was CEO of 20th Century Fox from 1971-1981, Chairman of KCET, a Los Angeles PBS station, in the 1980s, and Co-Chair and Co-CEO of MGM in the 1990s. During this time Terry chaired many charity premieres as well as Life Achievement Awards events for the American Film Institute.

Terry Stanfill is an Overseer of The Huntington Library in San Marino, California as well as Reader. Her subject of research, the Normans in Southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries inspired her to write The Blood Remembers.