A story of fight and resilience, By Light of Hidden Candles goes back and forth across centuries from the time of the forced conversions of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition to the current hi-tech era of digitalized archives. Alma and Manuel are apparently belonging to two different worlds: She is the observant Jewish daughter of a family of Spanish descent, he is a Catholic boy from Spain considering becoming a priest. Their paths cross accidentally in the Judaica store of Alma's grandmother, and later on, at the NYU, where Alma is getting involved in a genealogy project, where she hoped to find the Spanish roots of her family.
A couple of centuries earlier, her ancestor is faced with the choice of converting to Christianity or leaving Spain, or marrying a non-Jew or leave to unknown lands. The story has everything: from heavy historical content, to insights into everyday observant Jewish life - although I've found sometimes the observations about kashrut a bit too artificious, as it happens when you are trying to explain some of the concepts to a foreign audience on an easy note - and a little bit of romance too.
I liked that both Alma and Manuel do have a very complex personality and even more complex family story, but bringing them together as a match and the later discovery of Manuel about his Jewish roots - that I was expecting a bit from the very beginning - sounded a bit stereotypical for me. I also appreciate the idea of dialogue between religions, but it doesn't need to be done whatever the reason and in a way that simplifies at extremis concepts.
Despite its ups and downs, By Light of Hidden Candles is a book of interest for anyone who loves historical Jewish novels and which shed some light into the complicated histories of Spanish conversos.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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