Lucena
by Mois Benarroch
In one of his major works, Lucena, Benarroch goes from time travel to social comment, which brings to mind the hilarious novels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. An old odd ancient man is reaching the age of 1,000 years and has to pass his legacy to his great great great grandson, and prepares him for a journey that will last a thousand years. His first days begin in the Jewish city of Lucena at the beginning of the second millennium and ends in Israel and in Spain. He meets his descendant in a hotel in Malaga, while the young adolescent is trying to find his place in life and family, writing science-fiction short stories and fighting with his parents. This novel will take you back and forth from the future and back to the past, into a world of Sephardi Jewry, the inquisition, Mexican Jews, and back to our present day crazy modernity. Lucena is an internal exploration of the why of exile. And it is a modern road peppered with dialogues, poems, tales and various plots and story lines. All...