Beata Rustica: The Tale of the Would-Be Saint A novel by Meredith Steinbach Lauded for her "gorgeous prose" by the N.Y. Times Book Review, and by Publisher's Weekly for being "a writer of sensitivity and grace," Meredith Steinbach presents in her new novel BEATA RUSTICA an elegant and disturbing view of the inequities of our time as seen through the eyes of a beautiful, young dwarf. Confined not only to living at home with her family, but also to living in a basket when both she and her family forget that she can walk, Beatrice sets out to record all she remembers while on her self-imposed hunger strike toward sainthood. She fails to foresee the arrival of a mammoth cousin, the devotion of villagers, the designs of an uncle, the mercenary nature of her own mother, and the amorous wiles of the owner of the local egg factory. Wryly comic, at times appropriately dark, BEATA RUSTICA is a modern day Canterbury Tale set under the boundless open skies of the rustic midlands.