Please join me in congratulating Patricia O'Sullivan on the re-release of her historical fiction novels Hope of Israel and Legend of the Dead, with brand new covers designed by yours truly! The novels take place in England and colonial America in the seventeenth century. Here are the descriptions:
In 1290, King Edward I expelled the Jews from England. In 1656, a small community of Spanish Catholic merchants lived in London bound by a sacred secret. They were all Portuguese Jews. This is the story of one of them, Domingo de Lacerda, who learns early on that survival in seventeenth-century Europe requires both deceit and conformity. But then he meets Lucy, who has secrets of her own and who challenges Domingo to question everything he has been taught to value. The political and spiritual conflicts that characterized the Iberian Inquisition, the English Civil War, and the English Interregnum provide a backdrop against which Domingo must choose between his obligation to the Jewish community that protects him and the Catholic woman who loves him.
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"There is no deeper mark of being a Jew than exile.”In 1654, fifteen hundred Jews were driven from a Dutch colony in Brazil by a conquering Portuguese army. A fleet of sixteen ships transported the Jews back to Europe. However, one ship got lost in a storm. Drifting alone in the Atlantic, the ship was captured by pirates who brought the Jews to New Amsterdam. Penniless and unwelcome there, the refugees struggled to survive the wilderness of North America and the hostility of those seeking to control it.
One young refugee, Benjamin Vieira, works in the fur trade along the North River before being captured by a Mohawk warrior. After a daring escape, he makes his way east to New England where he takes refuge with the powerful Narragansett tribe. Benjamin believes a Jew must make his home wherever he is able. But tribal elders disagree. They contend Benjamin must live among his own people, Jewish merchants who have settled in Newport, Rhode Island. But Benjamin’s life in the colonies is soon threatened by a bloody war between the English colonists and the Native Americans.
And Benjamin doesn’t know which side he is on.
Set against the backdrop of the first Jewish settlement in North America in 1654 and King Philip’s War from 1675-1676, Legend of the Dead is a story about the transformation of the New World and one young man’s attempt to carve his place within it.
Sound good, don't they? These novels are now available for Kindle on Amazon, and if you get a chance, stop by Patricia's blog, Legend of the Dead, where she's got great posts on history and historical fiction! And while you're there you may notice the covers of her two forthcoming novels, also designed by yours truly--but I'll be posting those next week :)
Need a cover? Email me and let's chat about it! jennyq@historicaleditorial.com