The Sephardic CycleSeries

Recommended Reading Order

1. 1

   The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon

   • Richard Zimler

   • 318 pages
   • 12 hours of reading

   3.9(2210)Add rating

   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. 2

   Hunting Midnight

   • Richard Zimler

   4.2(19)Add rating

   Rich in historical detail and mysticism, Hunting Midnight is Richard Zimler's mesmerising tale of deception, guilt, forgiveness and devotion, played out against a backdrop of war, slavery and religious oppression.

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3. 3

   Guardian of the dawn

   • Richard Zimler

   • 400 pages
   • 14 hours of reading

   4.2(20)Add rating

   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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