The year is 1497, the first day of Passover; the place, Lisbon. King Manuel of Portugal has order all Jewish children to be brought to the church for baptism into the Catholic faith. Their parents must either accept baptism as well, or leave the country--without their children. Isabel Alvares, the heroine of my story, daughter of the book seller Menashe Alvares, is not quite five years old when she is dragged to the church at sword's point. Inside the church Pedro da Cuelho, a fourteen-year-old altar boy, looks forward to bringing the Jews of Portugal into the Body of Christ, until he sees the brutality that this involves.. Isabel stands before him, her honey-brown eyes wide with fright, her chin quivering, her lower lip stretched taut with the effort not to cry. It is as if her hand has reached inside him and wrapped itself around his heart. She will never let it go. InLisbon, Alvares's Bookshop is a beit ha midrash, a house of study for those willing to risk discovery for the sake of their ancient faith. There, the Alvares family endures the black plague and, with Pedro's help, survives the subsequent massacre of Jews in 1506, The story then moves to Toledo, where Isabel comes face-to-face with Cardinal Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Inquisitor General of Spain, as she works secretly to help others escape the Inquisition's flames. Finally, with her husband and three children, Isabel is settled in Recife, Brazil, where other dangers await. Through it all, the years of separation enforced by the activities of the Holy Office, through Isabel's marriage to her cousin, a match that had been arranged before either was born, Pedro's entering the priesthood, their love continues to burn in both their hearts. The tie is never severed, and helps to create new possibilities for the survival of Isabel's people in Portugal's American colony.
About the Author: Ann Marcia Shaftel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up in North Hollywood, California, and attended UCLA, California State University at Northridge, and the UCLA Writers' Program. After a career as an English and social studies teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, she retired to become a full-time writer, grandma, world traveler and lazy bum, in no particular order.