592 pages When an old house outside London is renovated, a treasure trove of Jewish documents from the 17th century is discovered in a secret cubbyhole, setting up a mysterious tale about life in a Jewish family that skips between the 1990s and the 1660s. British university historian Helen Watt joins forces with an intrepid graduate student to prove the identity of the person they believe is a female scribe who wrote the forgotten papers for a blind rabbi, a forbidden role for women during a time when the plague was rampant. The story delves into the hardships, successes and intimate lives of several Jewish families in an age where women's roles were extremely circumscribed. While it took me a while to really get into this work of historical fiction that took Rachel Kadish a dozen years to research and write, after I'd read a few chapters the intricate story had me hooked. This 2017 National Jewish Book Award winner is a mystery and history all in one. --