"He had fought his entire life for acceptance and dignity in a society where neither was his birthright. To abandon that struggle, to walk away from his achievements, would be to hand a victory to those who wished to deny his humanity." Luis de Santángel is chancellor to King Ferdinand, but he is also a Conversos - of Jewish heritage but converted to Christianity - and with the Spanish inquisition in full force that's not always the safest thing to be. Luis decides to explore his Jewish heritage with other theologians, but one of their members catches the attention of the chief inquisitor and meets a brutal ending. Luis strikes back and thus earns the enmity of the inquisition and none of his family is safe - or can he use his knowledge of Ferdinand's great secret to save himself? Luis' story alternates with that of Judith Migdal, a practicing Jew and silversmith in Moslem held Granada, that is until Ferdinand and Ysabela take control and expel all Jews from their kingdom. Luis comes to love Judith, but is he willing to give up his wealth and power for a life with one of her faith and heritage? Another sub-plot in the book is that of Christopher Columbus as he spends his time trying to gain financing for his voyage to the west. While I enjoyed this book, some of the pacing is a bit slow, especially in the first third or so where there are a lot of theological discussions about Christianity and the Jewish faith, although once Luis and his family come under fire from the Inquisition things do pick up, as we witness the terrors of the inquisition first hand. A cast of characteres and a brief recap of the period history at the beginning would have been helpful, I didn't know much about this period and had to do a bit of research on the net to get me up to speed. Lastly, it never ceases to shock me the evil that men do in the name of God, and that we never seem to learn from those past mistakes, do we?
