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Loading... The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (original 1998; edition 2000)by Richard Zimler
Work InformationThe Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler (1998)
   No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) MarkLacy | May 29, 2022 |   ) KarenMonsen | Oct 12, 2020 | ) VictoriaJZ | Oct 21, 2019 | Plot in a Nutshell In the late 1400s all Portuguese Jews were forced to convert and became “New Christians” although many continued to practice in secret and at great personal risk. In Spring 1506 as the shadow of the Inquisition started to be seen in Lisbon a drought was further exacerbated by a plague and a large scale pogrom began. Against this backdrop Abraham, a Kabbalist is killed in an apparently locked room and his grief stricken nephew Berekiah Zarco seeks his killer whilst trying to survive the devastation. Thoughts Zimler had clearly invested a good deal of time and effort in his research and the geographical detail in the novel was rich and immersive without ever seeming to be clunky or forced – it felt like I was running through the streets of Lisbon with Zarco. The historical detail too was impressive and I finished the novel feeling much more aware of a period of history I had not known a great deal about. The writing of some of the scenes were deeply dark and visceral and Zimler’s prose impacted all of my senses – it may have felt uncomfortable to read at times but he absolutely captured the brutality and horror of the time. Here though my enjoyment of the novel stopped. The novel purports to be a direct translation from a contemporary manuscript – however the tone, structure and language (particularly some of the highly sexual content) did not match and left me always a little confused. It seems like an unnecessary layer to have added. However, for me the main issue with the novel was the characterisation. As expected for a story about a whole community there is a large cast of characters and I struggled a little to keep them all straight in my head or care as they inevitably suffered through the days of the massacre. In the main cast I found no one particularly sympathetic. Abraham, the uncle and victim of the crime that forms the main mystery section of the novel was cold and patronising and I found it difficult to be moved by his death or the subsequent investigation. (  )1  itchyfeetreader | Apr 24, 2018 |  ) barb302 | Nov 26, 2017 |
 "Zimler's portrait of the city (and the New Christians' uneasy place within it) enriches his many-layered narrative, in which a suitably complex cast of characters plays a dangerous game with fate."  "The novel exhibits a curious predilection for revoltingly detailed descriptions of torture and murder, but there’s no gainsaying its authoritative re-creation of an imperilled culture in a savage time and place, or the force of the prophecy that Berekiah finally infers from the mystery of the death his Uncle doubtless expected—and may have courted." Notable Lists
Just a few years earlier, Jews living in Portugal were dragged to the baptismal font and forced to convert to Christianity. Many of these New Christians persevered in their Jewish prayers and rituals in secret and at great risk; the hidden, arcane practices of the kabbalists, a mystical sect of Jews, continued as well. One such secret Jew was Berekiah Zarco, an intelligent young manuscript illuminator. Inflamed by love and revenge, he searches, in the crucible of the raging pogrom, for the killer of his beloved uncle Abraham, a renowned kabbalist and manuscript illuminator, discovered murdered in a hidden synagogue along with a young girl in dishabille. Risking his life in streets seething with mayhem, Berekiah tracks down answers among Christians, New Christians, Jews, and the fellow kabbalists of his uncle, whose secret language and codes by turns light and obscure the way to the truth he seeks. A marvelous story, a challenging mystery, and a telling tale of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon both compels and entertains. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.63)
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