Customer Reviews

By Fire, By Water

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in 15th century Spain during the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand, this beautifully written tale is about the ordinary men and women swept up in the chaos and upheavel of the Inquisition and the 1492 Expulsion of the Jews.

This can be difficult subject matter for a novelist, both because of its complex historical context as for its tendency to incite a modern-day viewpoint of events that happened over 500 years ago. Mr Kaplan, however, has created a vividly rendered, sensitive account of this intense time as seen through the eyes of Aragon's converso chancellor, Luis de Santangel, who helped convince Queen Isabella to finance Columbus, and Judith Midgal, aunt of Columbus's official translator. His portrayal of this remarkable man and woman and their struggles to reconcile their past with their future amidst a rising storm of persecution humanizes his tale; and his evocation of a troubled Spain at the crossroads of its own past and future is equally well drawn.

King Fernando and Queen Ysabel have united the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and are preparing to drive the Moors (and, ultimately, the Jews) out of Granada. Torquemada is prosecuting the Inquisition, against both secular and priestly opposition. Meanwhile Cristobal Colon seeks the funds to sail west to Asia.

In the middle of all this is Luis de Santangel, the wealthy "Comptroller of the Treasury", intimate of King Fernando, "third generation" Christian, descendant of converted Jews, and target of Torquemada.

Kaplan has invented an expanded life and historical presence for Santangel, placing him where he needs him as protagonist of this novel of a key period in European--and American--history. But the real Santangel did play a role in the events of the time and, while personally protected by Fernando from Torquemada, lost close family members to the inquisition.

A novel of this sort always has to balance historical fact, character believability, and the demands of the plot. All in all, Kaplan makes a good effort of it, the result being a very readable novel that does minimal damage to history.

A lot of historical action is tightly bound with great human suffering in this relatively short novel. I've read few recent books that kept compelling me to read on the way this one did.

The best historical fiction contains no "What if?" scenarios, as you read it you never encounter anything that is not in the "This could have (probably did) happened" category. In this engaging novel, there is no point where Kaplan deviates from the area of highly likely history.
The setting is Spain of the late fifteenth century when the forces of Christianity are moving southward down the Iberian Peninsula and conquering the Islamic holdings. Ferdinand and Isabella have wed, uniting the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and their forces are waging war against Granada. Under the control of General Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition is growing in brutality and power, even King Ferdinand himself must be wary of challenging it.
In this fiery mix, there is the substantial Jewish population as well as the "conversos", people of a Jewish heritage that converted to Christianity. Given the zealous nature of the Inquisition, now so strong that even the Pope is wary of their actions, the conversos are easy targets of the soldiers in the army of Torquemada.
Luis de Santangel is a wealthy chancellor to the court of King Ferdinand, his friend and a conversos. Like so many others, Santangel detests the Inquisition, but unlike others he chooses to act. He conspires to have the Chief Inquisitor of Aragon murdered, hoping to cover the tracks of the misdeeds of his friends. Unfortunately, the fear and hopes of reward generated by the Inquisition are great and he is eventually taken under arrest.
A secondary, yet significant subplot is that of Christopher Columbus, a near zealot in the depth of his passion to sail westward from Spain in order to land in eastern Asia. Columbus continues to lobby the crown for funding, at first he is dismissed, but as is always the case, the thought of great wealth will convince people to do unusual things. Santangel supports Columbus, doing what he can to see that the initial voyage takes place.
Another subplot is Santangel's love for a Jewish woman and the fate of the Jews in Spain as the Christian forces defeat the Moslems and tighten their control. Fundamental to all of this is the problem of religion run amok during the Spanish Inquisition; it is fundamentally not about religion, but about power. Many people, including those high in the Catholic Church, dislike what the Inquisition is doing, understanding that it is about power and wealth, not really about religion. It is also about the fate of the Jews in Spain, being stripped of their wealth and deported, made a scapegoat for deep problems in the society and a source of wealth for the nobility.
Kaplan has created a superb novel of a world about to undergo a fundamental change, where Spain would leverage its' holdings in the New World to great power status, only to create fundamental social problems in the Spanish society that remained a problem into the twentieth century.

By Fire, by Water is the debut novel from historical fiction writer Mitchell James Kaplan. Kaplan takes on an important and turbulent period in time - the fifteenth century - in late Medieval Spain with the melting pot of Jews, Christians and Moors, and creates an original story with a backdrop of true events and mostly real characters who actually existed.

The Spanish Inquisition is at its highpoint, targeting and searching for heretics and anyone to wishes ill will against the church, and looks to punish and torture as needed in an attempt to unify the kingdoms of Spain under Christian rule. A man known as Christopher Columbus is doing what he can to put together a sea-faring expedition across the ocean in search of the rich lands of the Indies. One of the main characters in By Fire, by Water is Luis de Santángel, who is chancellor to the king of Aragon, but also financier to Columbus, trying to help out his friend however he can. Meanwhile to the south of Spain, in the Muslim ruled Granada is the only original character in the book - Judith Migdal - a beautiful Jewish woman who is a learned silversmith trying her best to get by with her skilled talent. As the Inquisition steps up its inquisitorial ways in preventing the spread of Judaism, Santángel - who converted from Judaism to Christianity - meets and befriends Judith, as the two become close, with the Inquisition watching closely by.

Kaplan has done an immense amount of research with By Fire, by Water, never overloading the reader with facts and details, but skillfully interweaving them so the reader is taken along on this enchanting story with actual events, as well as learning a lot on fifteenth century Spain, and this fractious period in history.

Originally written on September 29 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

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By Fire, By Water is a wonderful and devastating look at the unification of Spain in the late 15th Century. The novel centers on the growth of the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic conquest of the Islamic kingdom of Granada, and the discovery of the New World, told through the perspective of two disparate characters. Luis de Santangel is the Aragonese chancellor of King Fernando and Queen Ysabel of Spain, los Reyes Catolicos. He looks to be prosperous and powerful, yet he cannot shake the stigma of being a converso. Though Luis de Santangel was never Jewish, his grandparents were. Thus, as far as Spanish society is concerned, his Catholicism is suspect. The second main character is Judith Migdal, a Jewish silversmith of Spanish descent living in Granada. While the Jews in Granada live in their own quarter as minorities in the Islamic kingdom, their lives are truly turned upside down when the Catholics prevail in Granada and impose exile in 1492. These unlikely characters intersect, as Luis de Santangel finds himself drawn to Judith and curiosity about the religion his grandparents cast aside.

While the novel is told from both perspectives, Luis de Santangel is the key character and the novel centers on his own personal struggles with maintaining the delicate balance of his high position while also shielding himself from any suspicion of Judaizing which surrounds all conversos. This constant suspicion draws Santangel into learning about the faith his grandparents cast aside, leading him to take greivous steps to avoid the glare of the New Inquisition. However, this very act designed to protect his family draws them more deeply into the clutches of Chief Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada than he ever would have expected. Through the novel, it is a mystery of whether Santangel - incidentally, he was a real person - would escape the clutches of the Inquisition. His path is fascinating, as are his internal struggles.

Judith's character is less interesting to me than Santangel's character because unlike Santangel, she doesn't struggle with faith. She is secure in her identity and is perfectly accustomed to living on the margins. She does not seek to inject herself into a position of power or feel any shame about her family's religious background. Her position as the Jew drawn into Spain and quickly cast out, however, is very important to the story of the unification of Spain.

Ultimately, the novel leaves open a question: Which path was easier, that of the converso who sought to assimilate with Spanish society, or that of the Jew who was cast out of her home and homeland and denied all wordly posessions to pursue a new life on foreign shores? Both paths were perilous but ultimately it seems that only Judith could ever live in peace because she was the only one who was not playacting in a theater in which she was not truly welcome. 5 stars.

For readers looking for other novels about the Spanish Inquisition, I also really liked The Last Jew, by Noah Gordon.

[Reviewed for Amazon VINE]

This weekend I purchased a copy of By Fire By Water by Mitchel Kaplan. The reason I did so is because I was going to Mr. Kaplan's reading in New York on Sunday and wanted to show him the courtesy of having some familiarity with his book. In other words, I was doing it as an obligation with no intention of actually finishing the book. This is because I simply cannot read historical fiction and most modern fiction in general. Though I am a voracious reader (of history, politics and short stories), historical fiction fell off my radar a long time ago. I find that so much of it simply doesn't ring true, is boring and difficult to read. So much of the genre seems so forced and artificial that early on I simply gave up. The last historical fiction I read was in college. Since that time I started a few, but put them down early into the read. Thus it was that I trudged to the book store and purchased and started to read By Fire By Water, expecting not an experience as painful as those described in this book set during the Spanish Inquisition, but certainly not anticipating anything but a chore.

After the first twenty pages or so, despite myself, I found myself on page forty something. By the next morning I'd neared the 100 page mark, having stayed up too late simply because I was having so much fun reading the book. By Saturday afternoon I was lost to my family and finished the book late that evening. The characters were totally real and believable, their situations and interconnections fascinating, the historical details highly interesting and apparently totally accurate and well researched (though I consider myself well read on the history of the Inquisition, I learned many things about that history from Mr. Kaplan's book and perhaps even more importantly, left the book feeling as though I'd lived through the period!), but most of all, the stories being told and woven in and out of each other were great stories. I found myself caring about the characters,....truly needing to know what would happen to them next. It was the flaws of the oppressed secret Jews and the humanity peaking through the corners of the personality of Torquemada that made the whole experience even more unique and real. These were no stick figures - Mr. Kaplan found the real people that populated the era and brought them back to life.

I remember in college reading War and Peace in three days during which nothing else existed. Since those days and prior to this past weekend I had one experience with a book sweeping me off my feet in that fashion (I devoured the book in two days while on vacation). By Fire By Water was the second book in my post college life that I read in two days (and the first historical fiction). I didn't think there was historical fiction that could be so captivating, compelling and enjoyable to read. What started as a chore quickly became one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I have ever had and certainly the most enjoyable read in the past several decades of my life.

Luis de Santángel is a converso at the time of the horrific Spanish inquisition; his ancestors, in other words, were Jews. More for political reasons (he is a high adviser to King Ferdinand) and for the safety of his family, he is outwardly a Christian but in his heart a gentle, philosophical seeker of all deep spiritual truths. I fell in love with this decent, caring and astute man and the young Jewish silversmith Judith to whom he is drawn.

In this brilliant debut novel, author Mitchell James Kaplan writes with breathtaking poetry and compassion. In the stroke of a few dozen words, a new character appears before us as clearly as if we came across him the street. "Gulls circled and called in the tar-scented morning air" is his description of the dockside where Cristobal Colon's (Columbus) ship is found. Men are described by a belly and a slope of nose and slump of back. Taverns and markets burst into life in short paragraphs.

In a world gone mad with coercive religious conversion, Santángel keeps his moral honesty. "Our wives die," [he says]. "to give birth to our sons. And we go on through life, pursuing our vain ambitions." Colon replies, "Life's cruelty surely must lead to some reward." "What reward?" Santángel shot back. "Wealth? Prestige? Titles? Do you believe God cares about our rank?"

What does God care about? Love, perhaps and mercy. A rich story, a wonderful book, a deeply feeling writer.

Living in 15th century Spain, Luis de Santángel has just been caught in the cross-hairs of the new Inquisition. Santángel is a very wealthy and respected member of the community and also the chancellor to Fernando, the King of Aragon. But he is also a Jewish covert to Christianity, and when he begins to cast about looking for information and edification of his forgotten and displaced faith, he and his family are put into great danger. Though Santángel tries to exercise discretion and stealth in regards to his new curiosity, he attracts the attention of Thomas Torquemada, the leader of the new Inquisition, who goes to great and torturous lengths to punish both nonbelievers and those who he believes to be escaping from the fold. As Spain struggles to dominate and unify its kingdoms under severe Christian rule and Christopher Columbus petitions Ysabel and Fernando to finance a trip to the prosperous Indies, Santángel's once envious life begins to unravel. Meanwhile, Judith Migdal, a Jewish woman living in Granada, is facing her own trials. After losing half her family to tragedy, Judith must reorganize her life and learn the difficult craft of silversmithing in order to provide for the remaining family members. When a chance meeting between Santángel and Judith occurs, the two are inexplicably drawn towards one another, forcing each to examine the strength of their beliefs and the ways in which their futures may intersect. In this intricately crafted and exceptionally researched new historical novel, Kaplan brings to life a cast of characters who are caught in the craze of a dangerous religious fervor and explores the way in which those people remain true to themselves and to those that they love.

In the past few months, I have read quite a bit about the Inquisition and the effects it had on the people it persecuted. This has actually been a rather new area for me to study, and the more I'm exposed to it in the books I read, the more questions I have. What I really liked about this book was the way the repercussions for those affected were examined with great depth and sensitivity. After finally closing the book for the last time, I really felt it was the best representation of those fateful events that I could have sought out and read.

From the outset, it was clear to me that Luis de Santángel had an extremely comfortable life. Aside from his wealth and position, he had a family that loved and supported him, and I can imagine that it wasn't bad to have the king's ear and attention when he needed it. But Luis was hungering for something that he didn't have access to in his everyday life. He wanted answers about the faith that he was forced to leave behind, knowing that seeking these answers would endanger everything he held dear. I don't even think it was a matter of Luis wanting to convert back to Judaism. I think it was more a way for him to hold on to the values and ideals of his ancestors and a way for him to puzzle out some of the deeper questions he had about God. Luis' was a quest for knowledge, but in its discovery, his intentions got misconstrued and perverted. Although he tried to mitigate the disaster, the powers against him were too strong to resist successfully.

The representation of the Inquisition brought forth a lot of questions while I was reading. How does one man, or one group of men, come to believe that they can accurately police the spirituality that lives in another's soul? Indeed, what would God think about this? My religious education has taught me that God is a being of mercy and love who forgives those with sincerity in their hearts. But the Inquisitors had no room for mercy or forgiveness, and dealt with people brutally, leaving no room for those who were spiritually adrift or who questioned their faith. These men had an agenda that I believe was not from God, and I began to feel that all their punishments were only meant to dominate and subjugate those who they felt were spiritually unworthy. I can't imagine living in a time where your inner motives are constantly suspect and where another person has the right to torture you or take your life due to perceived spiritual discrepancies. It was was a shameful time, filled with shameful men who knew nothing about the love and forgiveness of God.

I also really liked the dual narrative half that focused on the life of Judith Migdal. She was a worthy heroine who embodied a clarity of purpose and an inner strength that I admired. When faced with a problem, Judith was resourceful and optimistic and she has great loyalty to those in her sphere. Pairing her with Luis also seemed like a brilliant move because both of them had similar strengths and resoluteness. Though they came from very different spiritual backgrounds, they were able to see beyond these things and get to the core of each other rather quickly. The fact that Luis became enamored of Judith was another danger that he took upon himself, but to him, this risk seemed to be of small consequence. The intertwining of these two characters gave the story an added layer of depth and resonance. I would have liked to have seen a more hopeful resolution to the story of Judith and Luis, but somehow what Kaplan did felt more realistic and faithful to the times he was describing.

Call me naïve, but it actually took me some time to figure out that the Cristobal Colon that was discussed in the narrative was none other than Christopher Columbus. It did became very clear in later sections, but for the first half of the story, it went by almost unnoticed. I liked the way that Kaplan fit Columbus into the story, and in his creation, Columbus came off as not only an adventurer but a scholar and a loyal friend. I was also surprised to learn that Luis (who was also a real historical figure) was the main financier for Columbus' trip to the Indies, and had it not been for him, the world may have been a different place today. This is one of the reasons I really enjoy well-written and researched historical fiction. It fills in the gaps in my education in a way that is inviting to read about and gives me a much more rounded and balanced picture of historical events and the way they played out.

As a reader and lover of historical fiction, I get very excited when I feel that a book has accurately and skillfully represented the times it describes. This book did that perfectly for me and I think other readers of historical fiction would also glean a great deal from it. Kaplan not only handles his history well, he also creates characters that are easy to identify with and care for, which made this book an engrossing read. The style of the writing was also very tight and fluid, which is something that earns it extra points in my book. If you are in any way interested in the events and place that Kaplan features so wonderfully in his book, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend picking up a copy and giving it a try. A great and absorbing read.

I'm a huge fan of historical fiction. I love reading about other cultures, other times, and learning more about periods that I may only have a fleeting knowledge of.

This book is a gem; meticulously researched, but written in such a fashion that you are drawn in almost from the first.

Conversos were Jewish people who converted to Christianity; however, they were all looked at with suspicion by those aligned with the Spanish Inquisition. It was basically a crime to have any Jewish artifacts if you called yourself Christian, and being overly familiar with those of the Jewish faith was also a reason for suspicion. You could be tortured until you confessed, or tortured until you refused to confess and died in your squalid cell.

Luis de Santangel, in spite of being a converso, was the chancellor of Aragon and a close confederate of King Ferdinand. This story is about events surrounding Luis and the larger events that he played a part in. We see a man troubled by the inequities of events, who, as part of the power structure, is facing a larger struggle of conscience. He loses a close friend in a horrible fashion, and exacts his revenge in an equally unexpected fashion. He then suffers through additional losses which would have crippled a lesser man. Thsi is not a 'feel good' book, but then how can we feel good when reading about such horrid happenings, especially in the name of God? It IS, however, an "oh, gosh, I really really need to get some sleep instead of reading this" type of book!

Judith is a wonderful character, and we feel as though we are walking beside her in her struggles to get by in a world where Jewish people are second-class citizens at best. Most telling is a phrase I read spoken by a Jewish character: "I heard that they treat their Jews well" in speaking of a Muslim city.

With the current strife between Israel and many of those in the Muslim community, it was eye-opening to me to read about a period where Muslims sheltered Jews and protected them (but only to an extent, as we find out).

There are wonderful side characters, and supposed Christians who commit unspeakable acts, and tragedy, and love, and love lost, and .. well, everything that makes a book worth reading.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction, to anyone who loves to read about historical events, to anyone who loves a family story, a love story, a story of conflict .. I think that covers about all of us.

Oh! and did I mention? This is a DEBUT novel - and a glorious one. I am so thankful that people with wonderful talents like to share!

(I was provided a complimentary copy of this title by the author to objectively review)

By Fire, By Water is a phenomenal book written by Mitchell James Kaplan that must be read by anyone interested in the establishment of the New Inquisition in Castile and Aragon, the reconquest of Granada, the expulsion of all Jews from Spain, and Cristobal Colon's expeditions. Although I had studied each of these events in school and even visited the Alhambra and Granada while in Spain, the hardships experienced by the conversos and the atrocities committed by the Spanish crown and the inquisitors never came alive to me before reading this book.

By Fire, By Water chronicles the middle and later years of Luis de Santangel, a converso and chancellor to the court and "friend" of Ferdinand and Isabella. Kaplan brings depth to Santagel's life as Santangel struggles to find his identity while still maintaining a high social position. At the same time, Santangel lives through the conversion of his only son and brutal death of his brother. Kaplan threads through the book the story of a beautiful romance between Santagel and Judith Migdal, a Jewish woman, who also bears scars from the Inquisition. Other characters in the book, such as the King, Queen, inquisitiors, and Moorish viziers adds rich depth to the story. I am looking forward to Kaplan's next novel.