The Content Reader

I bought this book because of the title with Bruges in it. This is one of the several, beautiful, medieval cities here in Belgium. At the time it was the Duchy of Burgundy. The book is a historical fiction about the german painter Hans Memling, who spent most of his life in Bruges. We follow him from his apprentice years with the painter Rogier van der Weyden, his struggle to survive once van der Weyden dies, and how his luck is changed when Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy becomes his patron. He falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the Duke, Mary, and uses her as a model for many of his painted Virgin Marys. His life is forever entwined with the Duchy and it nearly cost him his life when the Duke insists on him painting the battle of Nancy which in the end was lost. By chance, he get's involved in hiding Edward and Richard, two York gentlemen who had to flee from England. Later on, he goes to England to finish a painting, started man years earlier for Sir John Donne,...