The Last Song

by Eva Wiseman

Overview

Spain had been one of the world’s most tolerant societies for eight hundred years, but that way of life was wiped out by the Inquisition. Isabel’s family feels safe from the terrors, torture, and burnings. After all, her father is a respected physician in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. Isabel was raised as a Catholic and doesn’t know that her family’s Jewish roots may be a death sentence. When her father is arrested by Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, she makes a desperate plan to save his life – and her own.
 
Once again, master storyteller Eva Wiseman brings history to life in this riveting and tragic novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780887769795
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	04/10/2012
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 11 Years

About the Author

Hungarian-born novelist Eva Wiseman has received numerous prizes, including the McNally Robinson Books for Young People Award for My Canary Yellow Star. That novel and A Place Not Home were selected for the New York Public Library’s annual Best Books for the Teen Age list. Kanada was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and as the winner of the prestigious Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. Eva Wiseman is the mother of two and lives in Winnipeg with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

Set during the turbulent Spanish Inquisition in the multicultural city of Toledo, this historical novel follows teenage Isabel as she uncovers long-held family secrets that both terrify and liberate. Although raised as a devout Catholic in a wealthy household with Muslim slaves, Isabel’s exposure to the torture and humiliation of heretics raises her awareness of her own family’s idiosyncrasies, such as Friday candle-lighting and the absence of pork from their menu. Isabel claims her hidden Jewish heritage just as the cultural climate becomes increasingly dangerous for Jews. Wiseman (Puppet) adeptly portrays the threatening atmosphere of fear and prejudice that compels citizens into distasteful choices: Isabel’s forced betrothal, for safety’s sake, to a Catholic man she despises; old friends refusing her desperate family’s entreaties for help once their heritage is known. Isabel’s rapid transformation from one who feels peace when addressing “our savior’s mother,” to secret student of Torah, combined with her unsurprising preference for a kind Jewish boy over her odious fiancé, lessen the story’s dramatic tension. However, the themes of exodus and perseverance despite adversity are uplifting. Ages 11–up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 6–8—A story set during the Spanish Inquisition. Isabella, 14, and her family appear to be devout Catholics. But curiously, her mother does not eat pork, saying that it doesn't agree with her stomach. Blatant hints unfold, and readers learn that Isabella and her parents are New Christians, Jews who are forced to deny their own beliefs in order to survive. The teen is distraught when her father insists that she become betrothed to the son of an upstanding Old Christian family. She finds Luis disrespectful and harsh and doesn't understand why she must marry him. Soon she is told the truth about her family's secret religion. She meets Yonah, the son of a Jewish silversmith, and their conveniently instant friendship takes root. When her father is suddenly arrested and brought before the Inquisition, Isabella is determined to save him. She discovers a letter that alludes to the Jewish ancestry of Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, and she and Yonah plan to use it to garner Don Enrique's freedom. Soon an edict ordering the expulsion of all Jews from Toledo is handed down, and Isabella's family must leave, freeing the teen to look forward to life with Yonah. Historical information is woven throughout the story, but it is heavy-handed and greatly interrupts the dramatic flow. Alice Hoffman's Incantation (Little, Brown, 2006) and Kathryn Lasky's Blood Secret (HarperCollins, 2004) are more successful in presenting the drama of this time through gripping, well-paced stories and multidimensional characters.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

School Library Journal

The daughter of Queen Isabella's physician discovers that her parents don't practice the religion in which they raised her. Doña Isabel can't understand why her parents insist that she be betrothed to Luis, the cruel and arrogant son of her father's friend from the royal court. At last they explain that they are marranos, secretly living as Jews but seeking to protect her from the Inquisition by marrying her to a Christian. Shocked but not particularly given to soul searching, Isabel proceeds to meet an attractive Jewish boy, Yonah, who leads her into Toledo's ghetto for a secret Torah class and a seder. True to type, Luis turns out to be an informer who has her father arrested and tortured--but thanks to a fortuitous family letter proving that Torquemada himself had Jewish grandparents Isabel secures his release. With "Dayenu" on their lips, Isabel and her parents join Yonah's family and other expelled Jews headed for a new life in Morocco--their passage paid with jewelry smuggled by a loyal slave. A scant few of the Christians here are not rabidly hateful, but Wiseman is plainly less intent on posing thorny issues of faith or crafting complex characters than portraying Jewish courage and solidarity in adversity. Worthy aims are scuttled by avoidance of nuance. (Historical fiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR The Last Song:

"With spies and informers on all sides, the story builds to a gripping climax ... readers will easily be caught by the young girl's personal heartbreak and conflict and will want to find out more." - Booklist

"...The climax of the novel will set the reader in a spiraling whirlwind of intense emotions. This novel is a great read for young adults who enjoy historical fiction dealing with horrifying persecution and the will to survive." - VOYA

"...a quickly paced, accessible introduction to a vicious era." - The Toronto Star

From the Publisher