Hunting Midnight

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From Publishers WeeklyActs of cruelty and bigotry and a shocking betrayal propel thiscolorful if overstuffed historical novel by Zimler (The Last Kabbalistof Lisbon), set in 18th- and 19th-century Portugal. John Zarco Stewartis the son of a Scotsman and, through his mother, is descended fromconverted Jews called Marranos who have kept their identity a secretsince the Spanish Inquisition. John grows up in the city of Portounaware of his true heritage until a necromancer curses him when he isnine. In the same year, his best friend drowns before his eyes, and heis only comforted when his father returns from a trip to Africa with aBushman called Midnight, a healer and freed slave who teaches Johnmany things as he grows into manhood. But Midnight, too, meets aviolent end, and when John is 16, Napoleon's armies invade Portugaland John's father is killed defending Porto. Years after the war, Johndiscovers that his father, who he believed was a hero, had committedan unthinkable act of treachery. In attempting to atone for hisfather's misdeed, John travels from Portugal to England thenantebellum America. Zimler packs his tale with exotic detail,describing Porto's bird markets, plantation life in South Carolina andthe lives of Jews in hiding. Though his prose style is somewhat stiffas he attempts to echo 1800s speech patterns (" `Close your goddamnedsnout and run, you little mole!' ") and many of the events in thestory are melodramatic, the narrative has a vintage flavor thatbecomes absorbing.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistZimler, author of the unforgettable Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (1998), about the fourteenth-century massacre of Jews in Portugal, tackles an even more ambitious historical epic this time, beginning in Portugal in the eighteenth century and moving, over the next 25 years, to London, South Carolina, and New York. There are really two novels here, both compelling on their own but awkwardly connected. The first is the story of John Marco Stewart's coming-of-age in Portugal, as he learns of his Jewish heritage (he's related to the hero of Last Kabbalist) and must endure another wave of Christian persecution. The second, detailing Stewart's search for his childhood friend, an African Bushman called Midnight who is sold into slavery, becomes a Roots- like look at the horrors of plantation life in South Carolina. Zimler might have been better off saving the slavery story for its own book, but he remains a superbly talented historical novelist, capable of combining fascinating, broad-canvas glimpses of history with the most intimate portraits of the human heart in turmoil. Ilene CooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved