To walk today through the winding, history-soaked streets of Cordoba—indeed, of any Spanish city—is to witness the truth of Spain’s mixed cultural heritage. It lives on today in the faces of its citizens, in its food, art, music, and architecture. All of these bear the fascinating influences of the Muslim and Jewish peoples and remind us of the time before “the Spain of three cultures” was lost.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For valued assistance during the writing of this book, I wish to thank the following organizations and people: the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council’s Writers’ Reserve program, the Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Program at the University of Calgary, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa International Writers Festival, Dean Cooke, Roberta Major, Doug Little and Louise Thibault-Little, Susan and Edward Norman, Lise Rochefort and Adrian Jones, Dianne Bos and Harry Vandervlist, and, at every step, Peter Norman. And the deeply generous Stephen Brockwell, who sent me to Spain.
Special thanks for vision, talent, and faith to everyone who made this book a reality, especially Barbara Pulling, Heather Sangster, Shelagh Armstrong, and the entire truly remarkable team at Annick.
Hundreds of excellent books and articles were consulted in the researching of this book, but the two books I returned to again and again for both inspiration and direction were The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain by Benzion Netanyahu and The End of Days by Erna Paris.
My research would not have been possible without the Ottawa and Calgary public libraries and the university libraries of Ottawa, Carleton, and Calgary.
Please support libraries!
About the Author
Melanie Little has been hailed as an author who might “very well become the Alice Munro of our generation.” She has won numerous awards for her essays and short fiction. Her essays for young adults have appeared in two anthologies by Annick Press, Certain Things About My Mother and Nerves Out Loud, which received the Book of the Year Award from ForeWord magazine and was included in The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list.
Her highly acclaimed short-story collection, Confidence, was named a Globe and Mail Best Book and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award. In 2005–6, she was the Markin-Flanagan Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. She continues to work with other writers through workshops, classes, and consultations. This is her first book for young adults.
Little currently lives in Calgary.
© 2008 Melanie Little
Annick Press Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical— without prior written permission of the publisher.
Edited by Barbara Pulling
Copy edited by Heather Sangster
Proofread by Elizabeth McLean
Cover and interior design by Irvin Cheung / iCheung Design, inc.
Cover and interior illustrations by Shelagh Armstrong
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.
Cataloguing in Publication
Little, Melanie, date-
The apprentice’s masterpiece : a story of medieval
Spain / Melanie Little.
Novel written in verse.
ISBN 978-1-55451-117-4.— ISBN 978-1-55451-190-7
1. Inquisition— Spain —Juvenile fiction.
2. Jews— Spain —History—Expulsion, 1492—Juvenile
fiction. I. Title.
PS8573.I857A66 2008 jC813’.6 C2007-905467-6
Published in the U.S.A. by Distributed in Canada by Distributed in the U.S.A. by
Annick Press (U.S.) Ltd. Firefly Books Ltd. Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc.
66 Leek Crescent P.O. Box 1338
Richmond Hill, ON Ellicott Station
L4B 1H1 Buffalo, NY 14205
Visit our website at www.annickpress.com
The Apprentice's Masterpiece Page 16