A well-told story with all of the requisite narrow escapes and memorable characters.
Early in the 17th century, a group of conversos in Portugal attempts a dangerous escape to northern Europe, pursued by a murderous priest.
This historical novel examines the Inquisition, still smoldering and flaring up frequently in Portugal. Many Jews have converted to Christianity (they are conversos, aka “New Christians”), but are they really sincere converts, genuine Roman Catholics? One who obsesses about this is a priest in Abrantes, Padre Alvaro. The inquisitors are coming, so the New Christians are quietly slipping out of their ghetto and heading to the Protestant north and a more tolerant society. Among these are Isabela de Castro Nuñez, a teenager whose mother has died of the plague and whose father anxiously awaits her in Hamburg, Germany; and David de Sousa and his two sisters. They are aided by other conversos and sympathetic Christians who operate a kind of underground railroad up through France to the Low Countries. Some real heroes are Ana Martel Gerondi and her lover, Eduardo Carel. Then there is the Leon family, Simone and her brother, Enrique, and his son, Diego, who all risk their lives shepherding these hapless escapees. Ana, a healer, is in double jeopardy because a woman who deals in potions may well be a witch, and witches are fair game. After several close calls and kidnappings, the courageous allies try to turn the tables on Alvaro. Stark-Nemon, a published writer, handles things expertly, offering strong characters. The book is also well researched. One historically accurate theme is embroidery, Isabela’s specialty (“The embroidery on the finished glove was complex and skillfully stitched….Anchoring the outer corner of the gauntlet, a blossom of pomegranate was stitched in rich red, its contours outlined in gold thread studded with pearls”). Not only is Isabela very accomplished with the needle, but in the Jewish underground, embroidery motifs (hearts, certain flowers, birds) and colors constituted a secret code, announcing safety or danger, friend or foe. That is Isabela’s job during the trek, no small contribution. This novel revisitsan old story, but like most familiar tales, it bears repeating. Intolerance will always be with humanity, but so will heroes willing to fight that scourge, even to risk their lives.
A well-told story with all of the requisite narrow escapes and memorable characters.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781647429645
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
