THE BOOK FAIR
READ AND FULFILL YOUR LIFE
Lewis M.Weinstein
The Heretic
Author: Lewis M. Weinstein
Published: 2000
Genre: Histroical Novel
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 385
Review:
The beautifully written, engaging novel depicts the latter 1400's, Spain, a time of religious intolerance. The Catholic Church dominates, tolerates no deviance from its teachings, and persecutes suspect Conversos with a vengeance. The Church, though untrusting of Jewish converts, maintained from its inception, the doctrine of forced conversions. Following conversions, the law disallowed Jews to practice any form of Judaism, no matter how insignificant. Church doctrine claimed that Jews who returned to their faith, or the practice of Judaism, diminished the Church.
The story portrays the Catalan family, a family of Conversos who live under the watchful eye of the local priest. Always ready to fetter out Judaizers among Conversos, the priest keeps a lookout for celebratory activity near holidays or on the Sabbath, the lighting of candles, the sounds of joyous singing.
The Catalan family, brought back into the fold of Judaism after a horrific event of mob violence, participates in a clandestine operation to save Jewish works with the use of the newly invented printing press, and thus, dares to save the religion. The story develops into a spell binding thriller as the Catalans work under the nose of the Inquisition and aid fellow Conversos in distress.
Descriptive passages immerse the reader into life of Medieval Spain. Researched and informative, the novel delves into the political arena, Isabella’s struggle for the throne, and empathetic cooperation between Jews and Moors.
The Pope's
Conspiracy
Author: Lewis M. Weinstein
Published: 2012
Genre: Histroical Novel
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 360
Review:
Lewis M. Weinstein is the author of five novels. “The Pope’s Conspiracy,” is the long awaited sequel to Weinstein’s highly praised historical novel,” Heretic.”
Based on historical facts, “The Pope’s Conspiracy,” relates the story of the de Medici family who ruled Florence in the latter 1400’s. Benjamin and Ester Catalan return in the sequel, having escaped the Inquisition in Spain, and are helped to reach Florence by the Moors, who war with Spain. The fast-paced, richly described novel offers detail into the daily life and culture in Florence. The story portrays accurate events in the lives of Lorenzo and Giuliano, and their mother, Lucrezia. The plot to kill the Medici brothers unfolds in layers then quickly becomes the centerpiece of the novel.
Weinstein presents the delicate balance of powers between the five city states and offers an interesting mix of both real and fictitious characters. The author peppers the plot with religious debate between the Jewish, Ester Catalan and Pico della Mirandola, a young Christian scholar. Lorenzo de Medici, as in the novel, attended meetings of the Plato Academy, founded by his father, Cosimo de Medici. Lorenzo welcomed Ester and Benjamin to Florence with the expectation of their expertise in printing Plato’s works on the Catalan’s printing press. The printing presses in Florence, operated as described in the book.
A FLOOD OF EVIL
Author: Lewis M. Weinstein
Published: 2017
Genre: Histroical Novel
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 342
Weinstein weaves a love story into a factual and fast-paced, historical novel. The story, told in flashbacks covers the era of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany up to 1933.
Decades after the Nuremburg Trials, the grown daughter of a prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials proposes to author a book. Her focus lies on the German Nazi her father prosecuted. Her interest stemmed from information concluding that the main witness, a Polish woman who defended the Nazi at the Trial, had family killed by the Nazis.
The book, historically based, is highly informative, accurately aligned with historic events, descriptive of the corrupt, vicious Nazi regime, and detailed of Hitler’s relentless grab for power. Though the two main characters are fictitious, Weinstein surrounds their actions with real events and historic personages from both Germany and Poland.
The fascinating and thorough account describes Hitler’s actions from the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 to his unabashed dismissal of the Treaty of Versailles. The author depicts Hitler’s unhindered rearmament of Germany, Polish Marshall Pilsudski’s warning of the evil Nazi menace, the inaction of Britain and France in Poland’s defense, the Concordat between the Vatican, and the Nazis in 1933, and the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler unlimited power. In conclusion, Weinstein deftly states that the Allies turned a blind eye, to Hitler. Weinstein also includes the struggle of the Zionist movement, which helped Jews escape Europe to Palestine.
An interesting note: Lewis Weinstein also includes a character who semi portrays his grandfather in the book.