The Weight of Ink

About this book

WINNER OF A NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD A USA TODAY BESTSELLER An intellectual and emotional jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers of A. S. Byatts Possession and Geraldine Brookss People of the Book 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. As the novel opens Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents scribe the elusive Aleph. Electrifying and ambitious sweeping in scope and intimate in tone The Weight of Ink is a sophisticated work of historical fiction about women separated by centuries and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order to reconcile the life of the heart and mind.