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Historical FictionNovel recommendation: The Weight of Ink
Sisters, a book recommendation for those in need of a good, female-focused novel.
I just finished The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, and it was wonderful.
It’s about a 17th century woman from a hard life who, despite her sex, becomes a scribe for a blind Portuguese rabbi in London.
She has an incredible mind, and her scribing gives her access to things. She comes up with some ideas that are heretical to the prevailing views at the time, and could get her exiled or killed, but pursued them anyway. (This part felt like an apt metaphor for our own opinions in these times).
It goes back and forth between her time and an older woman and an arrogant grad student in modern times trying to piece together her story from clues and fragments.
It’s a beautifully written, well crafted piece of literature, female focused, and just the right balance of tragedy and redemption.
I cried as I finished it.
When is it actually set? I just looked it up and one item says the 1660s, another says the days of Shakespeare (d. 1616) and Spinoza (1632-1677), another says 1691 ...
The bulk of it is right before and during the plague -1660’s I think. After Shakespeare’s time, but during Spinoza’s (his existence is a very important part of the plot).
Thanks! Yes, the Great Plague of London was 1665. They have to throw Shakespeare’s name in there, don’t they? 🙄