![]() ![]() This novel in verse creates a richly atmospheric portrait of Spain during a time of upheaval and uncertainty when people were being encouraged to spy on friends and neighbours and to report the merest hints of heresy or transgression. The years that follow are difficult ones for these two young men but fate ensures that their paths will cross again. Ramon is hired to be a scribe for the Inquisition and Amir, while on an errand for Ramon, is forced to flee without a word to anyone. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changes for both boys. In truth, he is jealous of the close relationships that Amir forms with both Ramon’s parents. From the moment of his arrival, Ramon resents this new addition to their household. The second boy is Amir, a Moorish slave, given as a gift to Ramon’s father. These questionable origins are enough to raise the suspicions of the Inquisitors. Finding paper is particularly difficult for Ramon and his father because they are conversos, Christians whose ancestors converted from Judaism to Christianity on pain of death. But paper, like so many things, grows scarcer with each passing day. Together father and son eke out a meager living by lovingly, painstakingly copying the words of others. The first, Ramon, is a scribe like his father. This is a haunting tale of two boys living in Spain during the dark and dangerous times of the Spanish Inquisition. ![]() ![]() ![]() The Apprentice’s Masterpiece: A Story of Medieval Spain ![]()
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