by Lilian Gafni (Author)

The year is 1491, and sixteen-year-old Isabella Obrigon is kidnapped from her privileged life. When told she isn't of Spanish noble blood, but rather the child of a Jewish woman who died in childbirth, Isabella becomes personally embroiled in the terror of the Inquisition. She finds herself imprisoned in the famed fortress of Alhambra, where an encounter with mysterious Miguel Costa impels her to accept having been adopted and to vow to find her birth parents. Extraordinary lives parallel and intertwine in this tale: the Spanish monarchs fight to unify Spain as a Catholic nation; explorer Christopher Columbus-who has secrets of his own-waits impatiently for the war to be won. His dreams of exploration and fabulous wealth hinge upon receiving a summons from Queen Isabella. As soon as the war is over, the queen must fulfill her vow to the grand inquisitor to rid Spain of all heretics. She decrees the Jews' exile. With the war's end, Columbus can now sail under a Spanish flag to chart a passage west to the Indies. Isabella Obrigon must decide whether to follow her heart and join her endangered brethren seeking exile, or stay and live a lie.

Author Biography

Lilian Gafni writes with passion about the experiences of displaced Jewish populations because she experienced it herself. Born in a Sephardic family, and speaking Ladino Spanish (a mixture of Castilian Spanish and Hebrew spoken for many centuries since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492). She attended the non-denominational French Catholic School, St. Vincent de Paul. Jews had lived peacefully for centuries in Egypt; however, a dangerous current began coursing through the city that threatened the lives of Jews. They were forced to keep to their homes at night because of nightly riots in the streets. Her parents moved the family in 1951 to the newly formed Jewish country of Israel, where they hoped to raise their children in peace and safety. As have many Jews before her, Lilian had to adapt to a new life, a new country, and a new language. She served in the requisite two years in the Israel Defense Forces, which sent her to guard a Kibbutz (collective farm) in the region of the Negev. There she met American-born Joel, who later became her husband. After their marriage, they moved to the United States to his home state of California, where they raised their two children. Lilian Gafni earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Portland State University in Oregon and Graduate Studies in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University in California. She wrote Living a Blissful Marriage and lectured and conducted workshops for people seeking to improve their marriages. Hello Exile was her first book about the tribulations of Jews under the Russian oppressive regime throughout the 70s. The story is based on the life of Ida Nudel, a refusenik who was sent to exile in Siberia for requesting an exit visa to Israel. Lilian wrote the book during her 1970s work for the Commission on Soviet Jewry to help free Soviet Jews from the regime's religious suppression. Lilian Gafni's epic new trilogy, Flowers from Castile, follows the lives of an intriguing cast of powerful characters--Christian, Jewish and Muslim--during and after the grueling Inquisition and expulsion of non-Christians from Queen Isabella's Spain in 1492.

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