The Blind Eye,  by Marcia Fine
- Chapter One

 “Hermando, no. Please. Hanna’s still a girl. She made a mistake.” My mother appealed to my father even as she, too, made preparations for our long journey. The air in the front room of our home that served as our place of trade reeked with anger and frustration. Despair replaced hope. Three months had passed since the Edict of Expulsion on the thirty-first of Adar. Originally we were to leave on the first day of Ab but the monarchs in their cruel contempt gave us one more day.

“No!” my father shouted, gathering stacks of Byzantine silks and flax linen. Furious, he stuffed them into large hemp bags. A swath of crimson tapestry fell to the floor.

“But Hanna’s only fourteen.”

“Old enough not to be a fool. Pregnant by a common Marrano who believes in their Holy Ghost? What kind of a Jew is that?”

More....

ë Awarded 1st Prize from the AZ Author's Association

ë Honorable Mention at the Writers-Editors Florida State Writing Competition for 2007

In parallel stories set in 15th century Portugal and the 1990s, two women search for their identities. Set against historical events of persecution, The Blind Eye, a reference to a prejudiced prophet, creates a narrative about a family expelled from Spain in 1492 and a woman in Miami of Cuban descent.

Funny, smart and dissatisfied with her life, Alegra Cardoza endures her sisters' criticisms about her looks and lifestyle. When she impulsively accepts a job with a cranky professor, it catapults her into the world of Sephardim, Jews of Spanish descent.

A parallel story focuses on Grazia and her niece, Bellina, who are forced to live duplicitous lives. Based on true events at Rossio Square and the forced mass conversions at Os Estaos in Portugal, the saga takes us from the shores of Europe to South America.

A thrilling novel that spans centuries, The Blind Eye tells the story of perseverance, discovery and commitment.

ë Honorable Mention at the Writers-Editors Florida State Writing Competition for 2007

1920s Poland. 1940s New York City 1960s Miami
Driven by cataclysmic events, Paper Children encompasses three generations of women, their passion for life and the secret history of pain that follows them.

Paulina, a privileged young woman who is part of Warsaw society, finds herself faced with the dilemma of family or marital loyalty. From a distance she finds herself torn as the Nazis tighten their grip on Poland.

Driven by anger, her daughter, Sarah, a photographer, makes critical choices after witnessing the Displaced Person's camps in Europe in the wake of WWII. She forges a life of independence.

Mimi, Sarah's daughter, a vulnerable young woman, uses her curiosity about the Holocaust to create a truth for herself.

This exquisitely researched novel based on personal family history and treasured letters reflects post-war life for people forced to begin again.

Published in 2003, Boomerang takes up where Gossip.com leaves off, finding Jean Rubin coping with a challenge to academic freedom and a "boomerang" son who returns home with his pregnant girlfriend. Add to the mix a couple of slick scam artists reaching into the wallets of Scottsdale's finest and you have a recipe for a cleverly woven and very funny send-up of a place where people take themselves way too seriously.

Published in 2000, Gossip.com was a success in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area of Arizona where the story is located. Though fictional, the story is a biting, comical satire of the sometimes cruel and oftimes frivolous lifestyle where people with too much money living in a place that is too hot develop a community obsession with one-upping each other.