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Fifth Kingdom
A Novel About the Spanish-Portuguese Jews
The Fifth Kingdom is an ambitious novel. It is a gripping account of a man and his time. The man was not an ordinary individual, but none other than Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), the iconic Renaissance man of Jewry, diplomat, courtier, scholar, author, visionary, and not least, zealous protector of his fellow Jews. And the time was not an ordinary time, but the turbulent era that witnessed the tumultuous transition of the Iberian Peninsula from its Reconquista to the Christianization of its vast colonial empires.
Against the backdrop of Castile, Aragon, Portugal and the Italian peninsula and with remarkable historical fidelity, Jane Frances Amler has provided a sensitive evocation of Abravanel and his family. Of particular note are her reconstructions of the inner lives of her characters, their thoughts and feelings, their fears and dreams, their triumphs and their failures, their passions and their hopes.
The work of a skillful writer and perceptive thinker, this novel will reward the reader with historical knowledge and human understanding.
Dr. Martin A. Cohen, professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, NYC
