Le Cycle Séfarade Séries

Ordre de lecture recommandé

1. Le dernier kabbaliste de Lisbonne

   • Richard Zimler

   • 499pages
   • 18 heures de lecture

   Quel est donc le secret que l'éminent Abraham Zarko emporte dans sa tombe ? Le cadavre de cet homme, grand kabbaliste de Lisbonne, vient tout juste d'être découvert dans une salle de prière clandestine. A ses côtés, une jeune inconnue. Détail d'importance, chacune des victimes a la gorge tranchée, selon le rituel ancestral du chochet, boucher fidèle à la tradition casher. C'est en s'immisçant dans les tréfonds de la capitale portugaise, en cet an de grâce 1506 happé par la famine, la sécheresse et l'Inquisition, que Bérékhia, neveu du défunt, tentera de trouver la réponse à l'insondable énigme. Se peut-il que les meurtres soient l'œuvre de juifs mystiques ? Et où a bien pu passer la précieuse Haggadah, livre saint sur lequel travaillait son oncle Zarko ?

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   1

   3,9

2. Hunting Midnight

   • Richard Zimler

   • 544pages
   • 20 heures de lecture

   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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   2

   4,2

3. Guardian of the dawn

   • Richard Zimler

   • 400pages
   • 14 heures de lecture

   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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   3

   4,2

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