Book Excerpt...
Chapter One, Grazia

Edict of Expulsion:
31st of March, 1492
 
Accused of ritual murder in Granada and not under jurisdiction of the Inquisition, the Church orders expulsion of all Jews and Marranos from Spain within four months.
 
Granada, Spain
2 Ab 5252 (4 August 1492)
 
“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.”
  
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