Ilan Sheinfeld, author of the best-selling book The Ring, When the Dead Returned and the Jewish Pirate's Wife, has done it again, and has traveled as far as Chile and Peru in order to conjure up the forgotten life story of Francisco Maldonado da Silva, the Jewish monk, with his enchanted words. Franciscus Maldonado da Silva was born in San Miguel in Cilla, during the days of the Spanish Inquisition. Already in his childhood, his father revealed to him that he was a hidden Jew, forced to observe the mitzvot of his religion in hiding. This discovery, and Franciscus' attempt to restore the faith of his ancestors, tears his life and the life of his family apart. His father and brothers, his mother and sisters, his wife and his children - all waver between loyalty and betrayal, piety and madness, between the sanctification of God and the sanctity of life. The Jewish monk seeks to go down to the depths of a man's soul, which oscillates between his love and his faith, and unfolds before us scenes of transcendence and passion, compassion and beauty. We, the readers, serve as silent witnesses to his story as he unfolds it to Don Juan de Maniozca, the father of the tribunal in the prison house of the Inquisition. This is the fourth historical novel by Ilan Sheinfeld, a writer and poet who has won praise and awards, and his twenty-fifth book.
