The Sephardic Cycle Series

Recommended Reading Order

1. The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon

   • Richard Zimler

   • 318 pages
   • 12 hours of reading

   The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, an international bestseller, is an extraordinary novel that transports listeners into the universe of Jewish Kabbalah during the Lisbon massacre of April 1506. 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.

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2. Hunting Midnight

   • Richard Zimler

   • 544 pages
   • 20 hours of reading

   From the internationally bestselling author of 'The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon' comes a mesmerizing novel that takes readers on an epic journey from war-torn nineteenth-century Europe to antebellum America. A bereft child, a freed African slave, and the rich history of Portugal's secret Jews collide in this dazzling work of historical fiction that explores devotion, betrayal, guilt, and forgiveness. At the dawn of the nineteenth century in Portugal, John Zarco Stewart is an inquisitive child, unknowingly inheriting a faith hidden for three centuries due to the Inquisition. His innocence shatters with a season of loss and bitter discovery, but a magical stranger named Midnight, an African healer and freed slave, restores his safety and becomes his greatest friend. As Napoleon's armies invade Portugal, violence disrupts John's fragile peace, sealing his passage into adulthood with devastating loss. From the wreckage of his life, he uncovers hidden truths and lies from those he loved, revealing the unspeakable betrayal that destroyed his family and faith. This shattering quest leads him to America, where he seeks hope in a land burdened by unforgivable sin. With rich historical detail, from Porto's colorful marketplaces to the plantations of the American South, the author crafts a masterpiece that vividly captures John's journey and the mystical Africa that Midnight conjures from his memories.

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   4.2

3. Guardian of the dawn

   • Richard Zimler

   • 400 pages
   • 14 hours of reading

   By the time the 16th century was drawing to a close in the Portuguese colony of Goa, the Inquisition was making admirable progress in its mission to convert all 'sorcerers' - whether native Hindus or immigrant Jews - to Christianity. A progress helped, no doubt, by the availability of alternatives: those who refused to betray others or give up their beliefs were strangled by executioners or burnt alive in public autos-da-fe. By living just outside the colony, under the benign auspices of the Sultan of Bijapur, the Zarco family manages to stick firm to their Portuguese-Jewish roots. Ti and his sister Sofia enjoy a peaceful childhood learning to illustrate manuscripts with their father, and secretly dipping into the heady chaos of the Hindu festivals celebrated by their beloved cook Nupi. father and then the son are captured and imprisoned by the Inquisition. When Ti returns to India after serving out his sentence in Portugal, he comes armed with a complex plot of revenge. Devastated by the loss that he finds there, his plot unravels as he is forced to face up to the truth of his family's betrayal.

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