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September of 1354. Isaac of Girona is invited to a wedding in Perpignan. Judith, his pregnant wife, doesn't want to go that far from home in her condition, (about 60 miles) but she grudgingly allows Isaac, their daughter Raquel, and Isaac's apprentice Yusuf, the arab orphan under the protection of the king of Catalonia to go. Berenguer, Bishop of Girona, gives Isaac the proper documents so that he will be able to travel without fear through the countryside. Raquel doesn't really want to go either, but the bride, the beautiful Bonafilla, is afraid that her fiancé, whom she has never seen, will turn out to be unlikeable, and begs Raquel to accompany her. Isaac has been asked since the groom is the son of a doctor who was once Isaac's apprentice. He asks Isaac to bring some of his potions with him. Meanwhile, in Perpignan, Arnau Murca, a Christian knight, is in prison awaiting trial on a trumped up charge of exporting contraband. His wife bribes the right people and breaks him out of jail, however, someone snitched and he is beset by thugs and badly beaten. His wife runs to find help and brings back two large men who run the muggers off. They find safety in the home of a prostitute, who later transfers Arnau to a safer place. Isaac and his family stay with his friend and find a mysterious patient. Bonafilla, although pleased that her groom is handsome and kind, begins to act strangely once they arrive at their destination. Both before and after the novel, Caroline Roe gives a short history of the period and of the complex issues she writes about, but she never gets didactic within the story. This is an exciting tale, based on a period most of us know very little about, before the Jews are thrown out of Spain by a suspicious clergy.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, November 2003
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