Isabella's Way

Isabella’s mother recently died, and her father is in Europe making contacts for the family embroidery business. She’s 14 years old, alone in her house, working long hours to finish an embroidery commission for the local priest. It’s 1605, and Isabella has been raised as a Catholic in a small town in Portugal. But Isabella doesn’t know that her parents are “new Christians.” Then a mysterious foreign woman appears with a message that Isabella has been hired to embroider a trousseau in France. Isabella isn’t sure how to proceed, but her childhood friend David de Sousa, now in charge of their “New Christian” community, explains that the Inquisition has begun attacking small communities like theirs, and tells her that they must all leave Portugal as soon as possible, perhaps forever.

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of award-winning novels Even in Darkness and Hard Cider, lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber arts and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. She has degrees in English literature, art history and speech-language pathology from the University of Michigan and worked with deaf and language disabled children. Even in Darkness is historical fiction based on a family story in 20th century Germany. Hard Cider, contemporary fiction, is set in northern Michigan. Find her online at https://www.barbarastarknemon.com/