A review by jhbandcats
The Day of Atonement, by David Liss
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
3.5
This is touted as a Benjamin Weaver novel but Weaver appears only in a cameo at the end. This story takes place thirty years after we last saw Weaver and is narrated by a boy - now a man - whom he mentored.
The boy, Sebastian Foxx, grew up as a New Christian in Lisbon at a time when the Inquisition was winding down yet was still dangerous and formidable. “New Christians” was the name Jews had to take when they’d been forcibly converted to Catholicism in the 17th Century. The conversions having happened several generations in the past, the current New Christians are indeed Catholics, having no memory of their forbidden Jewish heritage. Despite that, they face the suspicion and discrimination of their Old Christian neighbors.
Sebastian finds himself in London at the age of 13, frightened, bereft, angry, and orphaned. He grows into a man shaped by anger and, at the age of 23, sneaks away to Lisbon to exact revenge on the Inquisition priest who sent his parents to their deaths.
Once in Lisbon, nothing goes according to plan, Sebastian is thwarted by friend and enemy alike. His deception of being a Protestant Englishman instead of a reviled Jew returning to the land of his birth is in danger of being revealed.
Some suspension of disbelief is necessary - about his appearance being so successfully deceptive and his fighting skills being so deadly - but that doesn’t detract from the story. As in his well-researched books of 18th Century London, Liss brings the city of Lisbon to life with his details.
Recommended for fans of historical fiction who like some action thrown in.
The boy, Sebastian Foxx, grew up as a New Christian in Lisbon at a time when the Inquisition was winding down yet was still dangerous and formidable. “New Christians” was the name Jews had to take when they’d been forcibly converted to Catholicism in the 17th Century. The conversions having happened several generations in the past, the current New Christians are indeed Catholics, having no memory of their forbidden Jewish heritage. Despite that, they face the suspicion and discrimination of their Old Christian neighbors.
Sebastian finds himself in London at the age of 13, frightened, bereft, angry, and orphaned. He grows into a man shaped by anger and, at the age of 23, sneaks away to Lisbon to exact revenge on the Inquisition priest who sent his parents to their deaths.
Once in Lisbon, nothing goes according to plan, Sebastian is thwarted by friend and enemy alike. His deception of being a Protestant Englishman instead of a reviled Jew returning to the land of his birth is in danger of being revealed.
Some suspension of disbelief is necessary - about his appearance being so successfully deceptive and his fighting skills being so deadly - but that doesn’t detract from the story. As in his well-researched books of 18th Century London, Liss brings the city of Lisbon to life with his details.
Recommended for fans of historical fiction who like some action thrown in.