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The Weight of Ink

by Rachel Kadish

Two centuries, one historical mystery

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Winner of a National Jewish Book Award

    The source identifies the book as a winner of a National Jewish Book Award; no award category is specified.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Two centuries, one historical mystery

Rachel Kadish brings together London in the 1660s and the early twenty-first century through a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents. In the earlier thread, Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam, is allowed to scribe for a blind rabbi shortly before plague reaches the city. In the modern thread, historian Helen Watt and graduate student Aaron Levy investigate who wrote the documents, signed only as “Aleph.” The parallel stories connect the work of recovering a hidden writer’s identity with the lives of two women separated by centuries. Jewish history, intellectual work, and the choices involved in balancing the life of the mind and the heart shape the novel’s central concerns.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in historical fiction set across two time periods.
  • For readers drawn to stories involving archival discoveries and Jewish history.
  • For readers interested in women’s intellectual lives and difficult personal choices.

Themes

Jewish historyWomen and intellectual lifeHistorical documents and identityHeart and mindChoice and sacrifice

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

WINNER OF A NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

"A gifted writer, astonishingly adept at nuance, narration, and the politics of passion."--Toni Morrison


Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.

When Helen is summoned by a former student to view a cache of newly discovered seventeenth-century Jewish documents, she enlists the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents' scribe, the elusive "Aleph."

Electrifying and ambitious, The Weight of Ink is about women separated by centuries--and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order to reconcile the life of the heart and mind.
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