When a nation dies, destroyed by another, what survives? When great leaders wander like shadows under the Earth, when monuments stare at us silently or disintegrate, what is left?

In today's society of ever prevalent conflicting viewpoints we tend to have a general airing of grievances and then move on. In the age of Early Christianity having conflicting viewpoints would easily get you killed. The author Mitchell James Kaplan brings us several opposing viewpoints in his compelling novel Into The Unbounded Night with an intriguingly unbiased view from each character.

In the late 1470s, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand approached Pope Sixtus IV with a request to establish an inquisition in Castille. The purpose of this tribunal would be to root out the “judaizing heresy” among so-called New Christians. Many of these New Christians descended from Jews forced to convert to Christianity two generations earlier.

The pope refused to authorize the establishment of this special inquisition. Isabella and Ferdinand answered by threatening to withdraw their military support for the pope’s crusade against the Ottomans.

This crusade was Sixtus’s most important project. The Islamic Ottoman empire had been slowly expanding since the 13th century. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was felt as an earthquake throughout Christendom. During the following decades, the Ottomans took the Balkans, Greece, much of North Africa, and even parts of present-day Italy. From where the pope sat, it looked like Rome was next. His primary responsibility was to protect Christendom.

Although wealthy New Christians effectively made their case to the pope, all their eloquence and gifts were worth little compared to the possibility of Spain’s withdrawal from the pope’s crusade. Yielding to Isabella and Ferdinand’s pressure, Sixtus IV finally allowed them to establish an inquisition in Castille. In a break with tradition, he even allowed them to appoint the inquisitors themselves.

To understand what Isabella and Ferdinand did with this historically unique opportunity, and why, you have to understand who they were.

In my view, Isabella of Castille was a usurper. She invented the myth that her half-brother Henry IV was “impotent” and/or a “sodomizer” and that Henry’s daughter Joanna, to whom he willed the throne, was illegitimate. She waged war on Henry and Joanna and ultimately prevailed, but only by marrying Ferdinand and adding the power of Aragon’s military to her own.

Isabella and Ferdinand were conquerors. Once they consolidated power in their own lands, they were not inclined to stop. In attempting to retake Granada from the Moors, they appealed to their soldiers’ religious zeal and patriotic fervor. But where had that zeal been when Isabella and Ferdinand had threatened to withdraw from the pope’s crusade? Surely the Ottomans represented a far greater threat to Christendom than the tiny Nasrid emirate in Granada.

The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I, of Castile and León

In order to carry out their plan and achieve the greatness for which they believed they were destined, the monarchs needed capital. The fastest way to acquire this capital was to steal it from New Christians, who as a class had acquired sudden wealth since leaving their ghettos. By weakening the New Christians, Isabella and Ferdinand were able to appease their aristocratic supporters, many of whom felt threatened by the rapid rise of an “upper middle class” of New Christian traders, physicians, legal advisors, and cartographers.

In By Fire, By Water, I hinted at the struggle between the New Christians, the pope, and the monarchs of Spain. In one of the early drafts, I developed this thread further. But I came to feel it distracted from the thrust of my story, which needed to be focused on Luis de Santangel and Judith Migdal even while suggesting the complexity of their world. By Fire, By Water is not a book about the Inquisition per se. It is the story of a man whom the Spanish Inquisition scorched but did not burn.

The publisher is generously offering two copies for a giveaway (US/Canada only). To enter for this random drawing, you must comment with your email address, discussing anything related to the topics above, such as Isabella of Castille or Ferdinand of Aragon, Christopher Columbus/Colon (a character in the novel), or the Spanish Inquisition.

Edited to change the Giveaway date to May 28th. Good Luck!

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. And I am adding what I purchased, swapped, etc.

I won an Ebay Lot of Victoria Holt/Phillippa Carr books, some are dupes so I've got those to bring to the used book store if they don't get claimed on Swaptree/bookmooch soon. I paid less than $14 total for all of the following books. The one I am most happy for is the 4 in 1 edition, but I also needed a couple of the paperbacks like Menfreya and The Witch from The Sea.


THE SHADOW OF THE LYNX published by Fawcett Crest #P1720 1972. 320 pages.
ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON published by Fawcett Crest #X2613 1973. 383 pages.
THE POOL OF ST BRANOK published by G.P. Putnam's Sons 1987 book club edition. 374 pages
THE SILK VENDETTA published by Doubleday & Company Inc. 1987 book club edition. 345 pages
THE TIME OF THE HUNTER'S MOON published by Doubleday & Company Inc. 1983 book club edition. 339 pages
THE PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK published by Doubleday & Company Inc. 1976
4 in 1 BRIDE OF PENDORRIC, THE SHADOW OF THE LYNX, KING OF THE CASTLE & MISTRESS OF MELLYN published by Octopus / Heinemann 1987. 862 pages
DAUGHTER OF DECEIT published by Doubleday 1991. 328 pages.
MENFREYA IN THE MORNING published by Fawcett 1966. 255 pages
THE WITCH FROM THE SEA published by Fawcett 1975. 320 pages
THE CURSE OF THE KINGS published by Fawcett 1974. 304 pages -
BRIDE OF PENDORRIC published by Fawcett 1991. 271 pages.
THE DEMON LOVER published by Fawcett 1984. 324 pages
THE ROAD TO PARADISE ISLAND published by Fawcett 1990

From Swaptree I swapped for:
Passion by Jude Morgan (2005) This looks awesome!
"Theirs was a world of obsession, genius, and above all… Passion...
In the turbulent years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, three poets—Byron, Shelley, and Keats—come to prominence, famous and infamous, for their vivid personalities, and their glamorous, shocking, and sometimes tragic lives. In this electrifying novel, those lives are explored through the eyes of the women who knew and loved them—intensely, scandalously.

Four women from widely different backgrounds are linked by a sensational fate. Mary Shelley: the gifted daughter of gifted parents, for whom passion leads to exile, loss, and a unique fame. Lady Caroline Lamb: born to fabulous wealth and aristocratic position, who risks everything for the ultimate love affair. Fanny Brawne: her quiet, middle-class girlhood is transformed—and immortalized—by a disturbing encounter with genius. Augusta Leigh: the unassuming poor relation who finds herself flouting the greatest of all taboos.


With the originality, richness, and daring of the poets themselves, Passion presents the Romantic generation in a new and unforgettable light."

For Review, I received a newly released novel by Patricia Falvey, (who spends half her time here in Dallas and then Ireland) titled The Yellow House:

"THE YELLOW HOUSE (February 15th 2010) delves into the passion and politics of Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 20 century. Eileen O'Neill's family is torn apart by religious intolerance and secrets from the past. Determined to reclaim her ancestral home and reunite her family, Eileen begins working at the local mill, saving her money and holding fast to her dream. As war is declared on a local and global scale, Eileen cannot separate the politics from the very personal impact the conflict has had on her own life. She is soon torn between two men, each drawing her to one extreme. One is a charismatic and passionate political activist determined to win Irish independence from Great Britain at any cost, who appeals to her warrior's soul. The other is the wealthy and handsome black sheep of the pacifist family who owns the mill where she works, and whose persistent attention becomes impossible for her to ignore."



For review from the author (thank you!), Mitchell James Kaplan, By Fire, By Water (releases May 18, 2010):


"Luis de Santángel, chancellor to the court and longtime friend of the lusty King Ferdinand, has had enough of the Spanish Inquisition. As the power of Inquisitor General Tomás deTorquemada grows, so does the brutality of the Spanish church and the suspicion and paranoia it inspires. When a dear friend’s demise brings the violence close to home, Santángel is enraged and takes retribution into his own hands. But he is from a family of conversos, and his Jewish heritage makes him an easy target. As Santángel witnesses the horrific persecution of his loved ones, he begins slowly to reconnect with the Jewish faith his family left behind. Feeding his curiosity about his past is his growing love for Judith Migdal, a clever and beautiful Jewish woman navigating the mounting tensions in Granada. While he struggles to decide what his reputation is worth and what he can sacrifice, one man offers him a chance he thought he’d lost…the chance to hope for a better world. Christopher Columbus has plans to discover a route to paradise, and only Luis de Santángel can help him.
Within the dramatic story lies a subtle, insightful examination of the crisis of faith at the heart of the Spanish Inquisition. Irresolvable conflict rages within the conversos in By Fire, By Water, torn between the religion they left behind and the conversion meant to ensure their safety. In this story of love, God, faith, and torture, fifteenth-century Spain comes to dazzling, engrossing life."