Heavy book a great read

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are so many reasons to recommend this book. First there are the two compelling story lines. The first takes place in the present time, as two historians discover a trove of historical documents in a seventeenth century London home under renovation. The second is the story of the creation of those documents in the late 1600s. This backstory features a refugee Jewish population who escaped persecution in Portugal under the inquisition. These are also the plague years in London, and this adds interest and a connection to our own pandemic.

The author alternates between two sets of characters in the chapters of this big book letting us learn about them before the plot lines unfold and eventually merge in the most interesting ways.

The skillful handling of these two narratives, beautiful writing, historical insight and philosophical thinking are richly deserving of my rating of five stars.



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