Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Maren Wiederhold
Categories
Historical adventure fiction

ISABELA'S WAY

Barbara Stark-Nemon

For fans of Ruta Sepetys's Salt to the Sea, this coming-of-age tale of one fourteen-year-old girl's escape from early-seventeenth-century Portugal's Inquisition, achieved with the help of a clandestine band of allies, will thrill and inspire.

In early-seventeenth-century Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany, dangers are plentifulespecially for those of Jewish heritage. Non-Catholics have been expelled from Spain, and the Inquisition has now come to Portugal to impose its prohibitions. Fourteen-year-old Isabela, an obedient "New Christian" with a talent for needlework, believes she has nothing to fear from the Inquisition. But when a mysterious woman arrives with a message from Isabela's traveling father, the girl must leave her home and embroider her way along the clandestine network of sanctuaries created to conduct Conversos, or secret Jews, to safety.

A host of supporters and spirit guides, as well as one special young man, assist Isabela as she escapes the Inquisitors and makes her way across countries and cultures. Along the way, she learns of the danger and importance of her work and is shocked to discover her family's true origins.

In this enthralling coming-of-age tale of resistance, love, and danger, Isabela employs her talent and fierce determination to find her way despite the powerful forces that buffet her every step of the way.

Barbara Stark-Nemon is the award-winning author of short stories, essays, the historical novel Even in Darkness, and the contemporary novel Hard Cider. Her historical novel Isabela's Way will be published in September 2025. Barbara lives, writes, swims, cycles, and does fiber art in Ann Arbor and Northport, MI.

Available products
Book Published 2025-09-16 by She Writes Press

Comments

I love this book! Stark-Nemon's best work yet! I was with these people every step of the waythrough the countryside, over the mountains, threading the secret passageways, etc. . . . I must say, it was a pleasure and a privilege to have a sneak preview of a book I will be proud to sell in my shop next year.

Barbara Stark-Nemon weaves a beautiful tapestry of stories, as elegantly embroidered as the linens that Isabela weaves. Reminiscent of Rachel Kadish's best seller The Weight of Ink, Isabela's Way is a meticulously researched and elegantly written novel of secret histories, fierce determination, and ultimately love.

Poignant, riveting, historically accuratea gem!

In this richly imagined novel set in the early 17th Century, Barbara Stark-Nemon takes us along as her main characters, teenagers Isabela and her dearest friend David, flee Portugal in a desperate attempt to evade capture by the Inquisitors who suspect they are 'secret' Jews . . . Beautifully written, this unforgettable blend of carefully-researched history and fictional intrigue will keep readers spellbound as Isabela and David's destiny unfolds.

Barbara Stark-Nemon takes us on a riveting physical and emotional journey as Isabela flees from the Inquisition, even as she must come to terms with newly revealed truths about her family. This moving, deeply researched tale has the pace of a thriller, all while examining questions of loyalty, love, and truth.

Isabela's Way powerfully evokes the era of the Inquisition in Portugal and the courage of the conversos who lived between faiths as they risked their lives to make their way to freedom. Both informative and deeply moving, this is a book that makes a lasting contribution to Sephardic literature.