The main character of this novel is Gino Liani, who grows up on a farm before leaving to seek his fortune in the city - a premise that could be true of any young person, anywhere, at any time.

The city in this case is Florence. Gino's mother sensed potential in the boy, and had him learn a trade at the local apothecary - until his elderly employer died suddenly.

To begin with, this proves to be quite the adventure: Gino has to negotiate the niceties and complexities of city culture, looking for a place to life, and finding a job, then gaining employee experience.

The writer brings to life the atmosphere of medieval Florence, where trades of all kinds sem arcane, almost magical: candle making, perfume brewing, herbal remedies.. Gino enjoys good luck through the connections he makes., though he soon encounters obstacles familiar to many over the ages: bureaucracy. He has to become fully qualified in his chosen field.

One of his customers warns him of hard times to come, based on his astrological knowledge. He is sure a rare conjunction of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn presage shortages and misfortune (this conjunction, incidentally, was in Aquarius, not the signs mentioned in the novel).

These hard times come to pass once Gino's first summer in Florence is over. The rain arrives, and never goes away, leading to mass crop failures, and famine.

The title of the book may well lead readers to believe that the novel is mainly about the horrors of the Black Death, but in fact the plague makes a relatively late entry in this novel, after the tribulations brought on by the bread famine.

The responses then mirror more recent ones to a pandemic: social distancing.especially, more bureaucracy over how permission is given for creating mass graves. Scapegoating also rears its ugly head. But Florence takes these calamités in its stride, whilst also recognising that medicine at that time was not equal to the challenges plague presented. Florentimes even seemed to
draw a link between poverty., lack of hygiene and the coming of plague.

Thousands of people die, then, but not everyone does. The novel goes have a happy ending, bringing a fedlgood factor to things, and could in some ways be described as a coming-of-age novel.

The Blackest Time offers a glimpse at a difficult period in medieval Florence through the eyes of a young man, Gino, an apothecary apprentice. Not long after Gino arrives in Florence, Tuscany experiences two years of unrelenting rains, resulting in widespread famine. The city fills with refugees desperate for food and work. Just as the weather begins to moderate, the Black Death arrives. Although these are dramatic events, this is the story of how people coped with unexpected and overwhelming tragedy. The author hasn't filled the pages with lurid descriptions of the Bubonic Plague; instead, we read of the frustrations of doctors and apothecaries desperate to help patients. This is a quiet, thoughtful tale of family and friends facing unimaginable, catastrophic events without losing their humanity. This book transported me to another time and place...I read it in one sitting. If you enjoy character-driven stories, rich in historical details, I highly recommend The Blackest Time.