Gateway to the Moon

by Mary Morris Narrated by Luis Moreno

Overview

From award-winning novelist Mary Morris comes the remarkable story of a remote New Mexican town coming to grips with a dark history it never imagined. In 1492, the Jewish and Muslim populations of Spain were expelled, and Columbus set sail for America. Luis de Torres, a Spanish Jew, accompanies Columbus as his interpreter. His journey is only the beginning of a long migration, across many generations. Over the centuries, de Torres' descendants travel from Spain and Portugal to Mexico, finally settling in the hills of New Mexico. Five hundred years later, it is in these same hills that Miguel Torres, a young amateur astronomer, finds himself trying to understand the mystery that surrounds him and the town he grew up in. Entrada de la Luna is a place that holds a profound secret-one that its residents cannot even imagine. It is also a place that ambitious children, such as Miguel, try to leave. Poor health, broken marriages, and poverty are the norm. Luck is unusual. When Miguel sees a flyer for a babysitting job, he jumps at the opportunity, and begins work for a Jewish family new to the area. Rachel Rothstein is not the sort of parent Miguel expected. A frustrated artist, Rachel moved her family from New York in search of a fresh start, but so far New Mexico has not solved any of the problems she brought with her. Miguel loves the work, yet he is surprised to find many of the Rothstein family's customs similar to ones he's grown up with and never understood. Interwoven throughout the present-day narrative are the powerful stories of the ancestors of Entrada's residents, highlighting the torture, pursuit, and resistance of the Jewish people. A beautiful novel of shared history, Gateway to the Moon is a moving and memorable portrait of a family and its journey through the centuries.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/26/2018
Morris (The Jazz Palace) revisits five centuries of history in this spirited story of hidden faith set in 1992 and 1492. Amateur astronomer Miguel Torres has lived in Entrada de la Luna, N. Mex., his entire life, but, with few job prospects, he applies for jobs outside the city. Miguel is hired as a live-in babysitter for a Jewish family in Santa Fe, which will allow him to support and continue to practice his astronomy. While working for the Rothsteins, Miguel is brought face to face with the traditions his Hispanic family has always kept but never questioned. Why are the traditions of this Jewish family, he wonders, so similar to his? Morris intersperses the journey of Miguel’s ancestors as they fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century and landed in the New World. Their tale is filled with the horror and betrayal of the Inquisition—including the violence explorers brought to the New World, as told through the journey of Luis de Torres, Miguel’s Jewish ancestor. Chapters alternate between the perspective of Miguel, who gradually learns of his Jewish identity, and his ancestors, who slowly make their way across the Atlantic and the Americas before settling in New Mexico. Morris’s richly detailed story explores the unlikely ways tradition can live on in the face of attempted annihilation. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

Rich storytelling woven with poetry. . . . If you haven’t read Mary Morris yet, start here. Now. Immediately.” —Jodi Picoult, author of Small Great Things

“Explores identity, faith, and family in a tale that spans more than five hundred years.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“A sweeping generational tale that stretches from the Spanish Inquisition to modern-day New Mexico.” —New York Post

“Morris weaves a clear and interesting tapestry, giving the reader an indelible impression of what life was like at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, as well as a variety of interesting character portraits. . . . A perfect vehicle for book club discussions.” —Jewish Book Counci l
“An intriguing, carefully crafted tapestry. . . . Family secrets, mysteries and love are at the heart of this story of survival against all odds.” —BBC.com

“This is a work so luminous, so important, that you could see it as a map of the way to live in our universe. . . . A dazzling masterpiece destined to be a classic.” —Caroline Leavitt, author of Is This Tomorrow

“Engrossing, richly textured, and spanning centuries with deftness and ease, Gateway to the Moon is Mary Morris’s most ambitious and best novel yet.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Hourglass

“It’s a great joy when a novel so rich in history is also a total page-turner. . . . A wonderful book, remarkable in its knowledge and a terrific story.” —Joan Silber, author of Improvement and Fools

“This exquisitely written novel suggests both the vastness and the intimacy of time—the ways in which the lives of the past echo in the lives of the living, whether we know it or not. A richly rewarding reading experience.” —Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“[An] enthralling saga. . . . Magnificent characters with complex psychologies, including adventurous entrepreneurs and several courageous women, populate this generational tale of the Sephardic diaspora. . . . With prose as clear as the star-strewn sky, Morris’s novel explores people’s hidden connections.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Achieves affecting, poetic notes, its vignettes illuminating one thread of the Jewish Diaspora. . . . Deploys a rich palette of detail and color.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] spirited story of hidden faith. . . . Morris’s richly detailed story explores the unlikely ways tradition can live on in the face of attempted annihilation.” —Publishers Weekly

“The story of the Torres family and its successful maintenances of ancient traditions . . . will have readers cheering.” —Library Journal 

Library Journal

12/01/2017
Skillfully moving back and forth between New Spain in the 16th century and northern New Mexico in the late 20th century, Morris (The Jazz Palace;A Mother's Love) tells the story of the Crypto-Jews, people who converted to Catholicism in order to escape the Inquisition but secretly maintained many of their Jewish traditions into the present. Morris begins with Luis de Torres, who traveled with Christopher Columbus as a translator to the New World. As the story moves to 1992, we meet the descendants of the Torres family living in a small town in northern New Mexico, still lighting candles on the sabbath, avoiding pork and shellfish, not mixing meat with dairy, and having no idea why they continue these traditions. Among them is teenage Miguel, an amateur astronomer, who takes a babysitting job with a Jewish family and discovers they follow similar customs. VERDICT The tales of the auto-da-fé and other graphic descriptions of torture from the Inquisition are gut-wrenching. However, it is the story of the Torres family and its successful maintenance of ancient traditions and, most importantly, Miguel's coming of age that will have readers cheering. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17.]—Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

Kirkus Reviews

2018-01-23
A terrible history of suffering and oppression, traced from the Spanish Inquisition to modern-day New Mexico, is exposed through the generations of a single family.Crypto-Jews, or conversos, hid their faith from the Catholic authorities in an attempt to avoid expulsion, torture, or burning at the stake during the Inquisition that began in Spain in 1492 and later spread to Portugal and Mexico. One such converso is Luis de Torres, whose original name was Joseph Son of Levi, who converts to Catholicism while remaining a Jew in secret. Leaving his wife and two sons, Luis, a translator, finds work sailing on the Santa Maria with Columbus, who is searching for gold and a new route to the Orient but discovers the New World instead. It is Luis' lineage that underpins Morris' (The Jazz Palace, 2015, etc.) saga, which develops along parallel narratives: one following Luis' offspring down the subsequent centuries; the other belonging to teenager Miguel Torres in Entrada de la Luna, New Mexico, in 1992. Miguel, the product of a broken home and a brief stint in juvenile detention, lives in an inbred community with bloodlines that stretch back to Spain. But Miguel's focus is less on the past, more on the starry skies above; his fascination with astronomy is so great that he has built his own telescope. Exploring the dangerous events and resonant connections—a dish of spiced lamb; a unique clock—linking Luis to Miguel, Morris evokes terror and hope. Her earnest, episodic work deploys a rich palette of detail and color, its breadth only occasionally marred by thinly relevant subplots and a sense of treading water.At its best, this historical novel achieves affecting, poetic notes, its vignettes illuminating one thread of the Jewish Diaspora.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170910854
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Gateway to the Moon"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Mary Morris.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos