South of Sepharad
The 1492 Jewish Expulsion from Spain
A Novel
My debut novel is now published! South of Sepharad is the story of
a Jewish physician living in 1492 Granada, Spain who attempts to flee the country
with his family at the dawn of the Spanish Inquisition. It is based on a true historical
event known as the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, which led to the creation
of the Sephardic Diaspora that continues to this day.
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I was inspired to write this novel when I visited Granada in 2016 and first
discovered the story of the Expulsion, a story that -- despite growing up Jewish -- I'd
never heard before. When I began looking for books based on the Expulsion, I
found virtually no novels on the subject. This inspired me to write the book I wanted
to read.
Here's what historians, authors and reviewers
are saying about South of Sepharad:
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South of Sepharad is an epic, historical novel which brings readers directly into the lives of 15th century Jews during their expulsion from Granada, Spain. Having grown so close to these characters, the book ending comes all too quickly. Written in the voice of someone living in that era, this book captures details and nuances which only careful research could achieve. A must-read for all those wanting to learn more about this little known event in history which displaced thousands, resulting in untold suffering and death.
–John W. Jarrett, Author of The Dark Prairie
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By focusing on a Jewish doctor’s family in late fifteenth century Granada, Weintraub insightfully takes us into the minds, doubts, and faith of a whole community. Painful relationships and conflict between a particular family serve as a lens to describe the travails and anguish of conversion, exile, and the prices one pays, then and now, for displacement. Not a monochrome portrait, this book shows the complex nature of life in such perilous times. This is an insightful, compelling, and poignant fictional recreation of the trials of displacement and what it meant to be expelled from or forced to leave one’s home. In this particular case of Spanish Jews after a millennium of Jewish presence in Iberia. A brilliant achievement!
–Teofilo F. Ruiz, Author of Spain's Centuries of Crisis: 1300 - 1474
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With South of Sepharad, Eric Z. Weintraub takes Jewish historical fiction in a fresh, new direction, bringing readers up close and personal with Spain during the Inquisition, and the battles fought for both survival and staying true to one's faith. As the story unfolds through the experiences of one family, it encompasses an entire generation and pays tribute to a destroyed way of life that is often overlooked.
–Alina Adams, author of My Mother's Secret: A Novel of The Jewish Autonomous Region and The Nesting Dolls
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In the novel, South of Sepharad: The 1492 Jewish Expulsion from Spain, Eric Z. Weintraub gives us the whole story of that pivotal year like only well-researched historical fiction can. Weintraub personalizes history, bringing heart and humanity to Renaissance geo-politics through people, through lives and loves. Caught up in the changing identity of Spain through Isabella and Ferdinand’s Reconquista, a Jewish family tries to hold onto itself, each other, and its own identity, newly at odds with the only home they’ve ever known. As front-page news alerts us to one dire refugee crisis after another this period of Spanish and Jewish history can bring us insight and understanding and Weintraub is the writer to lead us there. South of Sepharad is historical fiction when we need it most.
– Jordan A. Rothacker, author of The Pit, and No Other Stories
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South of Sepharad is a wrenching novel about how morality changes or stagnates in times of crisis.
– Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews
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Readers will be swept up in this well-paced and well-plotted novel filled with believably human characters. This is a gripping novel of a turbulent time that will stay with readers long after the last page is read. Highly recommended.
– Karen Bordonaro, Historical Novel Society
