“Heretics” by Leonardo Padura, Farrar,
Strauss and Giroux, 2017, 528 pages,
$16.15 Amazon paperback
Leonardo Padura is a well-known Cuban author whose mysteries featuring Cuban police detective Mario Conde have been very popular. In fact, he is also the author of historical fiction of note including “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” a novel about the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and “Adios Hemingway” about the author’s life in Cuba.
In “Heretics” Padura combines crimes that the now-retired Conde must solve, with an exploration of Jewish life in Cuba before Batista took over and stories reaching far into the past from Amsterdam to Poland in the 1600’s.
The novel begins with 9-year-old Daniel Kaminsky standing on the dock in Havana as the SS Saint Louis comes into the harbor carrying hundreds of Jews who are fleeing Hitler. Daniel’s parents are on board, carrying with them a small Rembrandt portrait that has been in their family for about 300 years. The Kaminskys hope to use it to bargain for their freedom, but they fail. Like the other passengers on board, they are sent back to Europe and end up murdered in a concentration camp.
That however, is only the beginning of the novel. How did the Rembrandt become a possession of the Kaminsky family? Who is the boy in the portrait? Where did the painting go when the Kaminskys were denied entry to Cuba? What happens to Daniel? All of these questions are eventually answered.
Padura shifts the narrative to Amsterdam in the 1600s where Jews from Catholic countries found a safe haven from the Inquisition. He introduces the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza and the emergence of Shabtai Tzvi who claimed to be the new Messiah. Finally he returns his story to modern day Cuba when the mysterious painting is found in auction in England. Then Daniel’s grandson decides to recover it for the family.
“Heretics” is a complicated narrative that explores Jewish history for three centuries. It is beautifully written, combining mysteries, Jewish history and characters a reader will care about. Yes, it is over 500 pages long, but so is any recounting of Jewish history.
Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian and an award winning book reviewer.
