Beyond the Ghetto Gates
2020
Michelle Cameron’s wonderful historical novel, Beyond the Ghetto Gates, is set in Ancona, a seaport on the Adriatic in Central Italy. In 1797, Napoleon’s Grande Armée invaded and liberated the Jewish population, which had been confined to living behind iron gates since the mid-1500s. Cameron’s story, both tragic and hopeful, centers around a headstrong young girl named Marielle. She is gifted in working with numbers and dreams of running her father’s business, which creates beautiful ketubot (Jewish marriage certificates). I loved reading about her coming of age in this rarely explored setting during the Napoleonic Wars.
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