Fiction
Thou Shalt Forget the Fire
by Gabriela Riveros
The story of the Sephardi Jew’s exodus from Spain and Portugal —silenced across four centuries— and their struggle to survive migrations, epidemics, hurricanes, war, prejudice, torture, political intrigues, and betrayals superbly narrated by Gabriela Riveros’ expert voice. Olvidarás el Fuego is the very first novel that chronicles this poignant story, the tragedy of the Carvajal lineage and the fate of their manuscripts and memoirs, found in 2016 at an auction house in New York, after having been stolen from the National Archives. Through vivid, flesh-and-blood characters, we will witness their heroic, underground resistance, the fight of both men and women, entire families who gave their lives for their right to freedom of thought, belief, and religion. From Europe to New Spain, from Africa to Asia, the protagonists guard an ancestral secret, all while they are besieged by a political context in which cultural diversity was not only considered a sin, but a crime against the Estate.
