REVIEW: Kindle the Light of Liberty by Mirta Ines Trupp
They had no voice. They held no power. Yet they helped decide the fate of a nation.
In the bustling streets of Philadelphia, Rose Wachsman has no time for the rigid expectations of society—and even less for the infuriatingly reserved Nathan Hirsch. She is a woman of the hearth, sharp-witted and fiercely loyal to the cause of liberty; he is a man of business and tradition, seemingly more concerned with ledgers than the fires of revolution.
But as the war moves from a tradesman’s chandlery to the parlors of the elite, Rose and Nathan find themselves forced into a dangerous game of intelligence and alliance. In a world that would rather forget their names, they must overcome their own prejudices to discover that their greatest adversary— might be their only hope.
Dear Ms. Trupp,
Your book looked interesting and is perfectly timed for July 4th (actual release date instead of a day early as I’m posting it). I liked a lot of it but other bits, not as much.
Rose Wachsman and her father Benjamin, a chandler by profession who along with Rose’s mother fled Vilna for America, are all in favor of Independence. But in Philadelphia, there are plenty who remain loyal to the Crown. Families are divided and as control of the city swings between the two sides, people have to mind what they say, what they do, and what others think of them. Rose isn’t sure about Nathan Hirsch, the son of a prominent merchant. Nathan is quiet and intense. He’s also put himself between Rose and Loyalists and a British intelligence officer.
What Nathan doesn’t know is that Rose has been a secret part to messages passing between various states with coded intel on troop and stores movements, among other things. When relatives in Savannah are forced from their homes by the British, Nathan journeys to help her cousins travel to Philadelphia and safety, something that Mr. Hirsch the elder disapproves of. As the struggle for Independence wages, will their fight for liberty as well as a place in America for Jews be victorious?
“I leave the matter in your hands, gentleman, and have no doubt that, whether Jew or Gentile, we will receive those who come to us not as supplicants, but as our own.
”At the conclusion of her little speech, an elder stood to proclaim: Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh. Nods and murmured assent, more solemn than celebratory, followed. To a man, they understood that all of Israel was responsible for one another.
This is a fairly short book despite covering 1775 to 1782. It may initially seem as if there are sudden large time gaps between chapters but the important things that took place in the gaps are revealed in the next chapter. This does make the narrative feel a bit jumpy at times. The book is also packed with more similes than I can ever recall reading in one story. There are also times, especially when Rose and Nathan are verbally sparring before they realize each other’s true loyalties, when what they say is so oblique that sometimes I couldn’t make heads or tails about what they’re actually saying.
But all that aside, I really enjoyed seeing the Revolution from this angle. Many Colonists were fighting for Independence from Britain but the Jews were also staking a claim to be accepted as equals and ruled by the same laws as anyone else rather than at the whim of European rulers who could change their minds about what Jews could do and where they could live.
What remained was something far less practiced and far more difficult to behold: a man who had acted, and must now abide the consequence of that action. A most disquieting thought pressed itself upon her—
I have not understood him at all.
Rose’s mother married down for love and Rose has cousins who delicately curl their lips at her father’s trade and that Rose helps make the soap and candles as well as working behind the counter. She smells of tallow (slight sneer) to them. But if allowing cousin Rebecca to look down on her at social gatherings garners Rose information, well that’s just fine and dandy. The story shows that women and tradespeople were just as important to victory as those with weapons. And if it hadn’t been for Jewish financiers who personally paid enormous sums to keep American troops in the field, we might not have held on long enough to get the French on the side of their enemy’s enemy.
So I enjoyed seeing the fight for American independence from another viewpoint, especially a female one. Both Rose and Nathan have character growth, moments of quick thinking, and rock solid values. All things that a new nation needs. B-
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@Jayne, I haven’t read a book set at the time of the revolution in years. Your review brought to mind Suzanne Adair’s short mystery series set at the time of the American revolution which began with Paper Woman.
@LML: Oh, that looks like a series I should investigate.
Thank you for your time and interest, Jayne, in reading “Kindle the Light of Liberty.” As an independent author, I truly appreciate the NetGalley audience who embraces the challenge of reading ARCs (the pre-publication version). Would you care to receive a complimentary ePub file of the final product? I’d love the opportunity to improve on the B-!
@Mirta Ines Trupp: Thank you for the offer Mirta but I already have so many arcs lined up to read and review and too many books that I’ve bought over the years to allow for any rereads.