In an author’s note introducing the factual underpinnings of her beautiful third novel, author Barbara Stark-Nemon reports that the Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834) targeted Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and women herbalists and healers for alleged heresy against the Catholic Church.
While Stark-Nemon’s novel focuses exclusively on the Jewish community, she writes that as panic spread through Spain, many fearful Jews fled to Portugal, where they lived in relative peace as “New Christians” — converts to Catholicism who secretly practiced Jewish rituals — for nearly 100 years.
Like most ethnic vilification campaigns, this one rested on the baseless claim that Jews were to blame for the emergence of the bubonic plague.
This changed, she writes, when King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile decided to “consolidate their power into a newly unified Spanish kingdom” early in the 17th century. The move coincided with renewed calls for Jewish extermination, and anti-Semitic prejudice, discrimination and threats of violence became nearly ubiquitous. Like most ethnic vilification campaigns [recall Trump’s assertion that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s puppies and cats], this one rested on the baseless claim that Jews were to blame for the emergence of the bubonic plague. As Jewish unease escalated, those who could afford to leave began to do so, hoping to find sanctuary in Amsterdam, Hamburg or Venice.
It was a tumultuous time.
The protagonist of Isabela’s Way, 14-year-old Isabela de Castro Nunez, is caught in this maelstrom. Already renowned for her exquisite needlework, Isabela’s life has been completely upended by the recent death of her mother and the absence of her father, a successful New Christian fabric merchant who is traveling to promote his business and political interests. Left completely on her own, Isabela is keenly aware that the New Christians in her hometown of Abrantes, Portugal, are facing increasing scrutiny, putting every resident on edge.
This understanding leads Isabela, her friend David and David’s two sisters to leave Abrantes. The resultant journey on foot, in carriages and on horseback is harrowing, and Stark-Nemon’s imagined network of clandestine Jewish and Christian-run safe houses — providing those fleeing potential persecution with food, clothing, shelter and, in Isabela’s case, weeks of temporary employment embroidering a wedding trousseau — is well-wrought. Although Stark-Nemon cautions readers that the “underground railroad” she depicts is wholly fabricated, with no evidence to suggest that such an entity existed, the fact that many Jews escaped the Inquisition makes one wonder if a coordinated system was operative. It also makes Isabela’s Way a compelling page-turner.
Indeed, Isabela’s Way is a great read full of intrigue, danger, close calls, unfolding romantic love, and the joy of seeing a teenager come into her own as an autonomous, creative young adult. The role of the Catholic Church in the unfolding horror of the Inquisition is sharply drawn, and while one particular priest is a villain writ large, to its credit, the novel does not make anyone a cartoonish stereotype. That said, by casting a spotlight on the irrational, ramped-up hatred unleashed during the Inquisition, the book draws a clear line to Hitler’s genocidal campaign and other subsequent atrocities, reminding readers of the ongoing need for vigilance to counter tyranny, oppression and bigotry.
As Rabbi and philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) wrote, “We each decide whether to make ourselves intelligent or ignorant, compassionate or cruel, generous or miserly. … No one drops us along one path or the other. We are responsible for what we are.” Isabela’s Way underscores this wise injunction.
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Isabela’s Way
By Barbara Stark-Nemon
She Writes Press; 256 pages
$17.99; E-book $12.99
Release date: Sept. 16, 2025. Available for pre-order.
