The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
“Zimler’s portrait of the Lisbon (and the New Christians’ uneasy place within it) enriches his many-layered narrative, in which a suitably complex cast of characters plays a dangerous game with fate.”
The year is 1506, and the streets of Lisbon are seething with fear and suspicion when Abraham Zarco is found dead, a naked girl at his side. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of the Jewish tradition at a time when the Jews of Portugal were forced to convert to Christianity. Berekiah, a talented young manuscript illuminator, investigates his uncle's murder, and discovers in the kabbalah clues that lead him into the labyrinth of secrets in which the Jews sought to hide from their persecutors.
A challenging mystery and a powerful indictment of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is an extraordinary and spellbinding historical thriller.
Published in 23 languages
Bestseller in 13 countries, including the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Portugal and Australia.
More than 550,000 copies sold worldwide
#1 Jewish title on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
#1 Kabbalah title on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
#1 Jewish Fiction title on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Chosen by three British critics as Book of the Year
Winner of the Herodotus Award in the USA for best Historical Novel
ARTICLES
Beating the System in Stanford Magazine
By Heather Millar | July/August 1998
New York publishers said his novel would never sell. So he peddled it to the rest of the world first.
REVIEWS
Reviews from readers on Goodreads
PRAISE FOR THE LAST KABBALIST OF LISBON
“I loved ‘The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon.’”
— John Le Carré
“Richard Zimler is a present-day scholar and writer of remarkable erudition and compelling imagination.”
—The Spectator (UK)
“Explosive, prophetic and unquestionably brave.”
—Newsday (USA)
“A riveting literary murder mystery, this novel is also a harrowing picture of the persecution of 16th-century Jews and, in passing, an atmospheric introduction to the hermetic Jewish tradition of Kabbalah.”
—Independent on Sunday (UK)
“Gripping, richly written and overflowing with historic detail.”
—New York Times (USA)
“Zimler is a present-day scholar and writer of remarkable erudition and compelling imagination.”
—The Spectator
“Historical accuracy, the structure of a mystery, the pace of a thriller . . . a fascinating novel with a spellbinding subject matter”
—Elle (Portugal)
“Vividly rendered . . . drenched in atmosphere and period detail.”
—Wall Street Journal (USA)
“The novel’s suspenseful twists are full of both shadow and luminosity – and are as intricate as the miniature paintings and designs of manuscript illumination.”
—Jewish Week (USA)
“A superbly structured book that can be read on different levels, like a true kabbalistic text. Light-years better than the usual bestselling novel.”
—A Tribuna (Brazil)
“A unique mixture of historical novel and thriller, telling a tale of intolerance and the deeper significance of violence, crime and death.”
—Diário de Notícias (Portugal)