First published in Italian by Neri Pozza in 2021, historian Ariel Toaff’s debut novel The Renegade (CPL Editions) is now available in English thanks to Cristina Popple’s translation. Toaff will be at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò on Wednesday September 18, at 630 pm, to talk about it with Alessandro Cassin from Centro Primo Levi.
A refreshing, complex take on the historical novel, the narrative tracks the life and death of David Ajash, an Italian rabbi and kabbalist of Algerian origin. In 1840, a young boy made a chilling discovery – Ajash’s lifeless body under an olive tree. The mysterious circumstances of the rabbi’s death raise haunting questions – was it suicide or homicide? Prepare to be enthralled as this gripping literary debut unravels the story in reverse, starting from this gripping scene.
More than a fictionalized biography, The Renegade seamlessly merges historical questions and hypotheses into the fabric of a work of literary fiction. It portrays the Jewish Nation of Livorno in vivid brushstrokes: Hebrew printing, philosophical debates, and sea trade, alongside the food, scents, brothels, intrigue, and shifting alliances that accompany a golden age. It is also a meditation on acceptance and rejection, and of painfully unsolved conflicts between a father and a son.
The novel begins with a powerful quote from David Ajash: “My descent into hell was already at a good point. Fate was offering me another chance.” This quote sets the tone for the novel, hinting at the internal struggles and the journey of redemption that the protagonist, will embark on.
Ariel Toaff is a rabbi and a historian. Born in Ancona, Italy, he lives in Tel Aviv, where he is professor emeritus of Medieval and Renaissance History at the Bar-Ilan University. He came to international prominence in 2007 with the publication of his controversial Pasque Di Sangue (Blood Passovers, Gyan Books Hong Kong, 2007.) Among his many works: The Jews in Medieval Assisi 1305-1487: A social and economic history of a small Jewish community (1979); The Jews in Umbria, 3 vols., Leiden, E.J.Brill, 1993-94; Love, Work, and Death. Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria, The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (1996); Jewish Monsters. The Jewish Imaginary from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era (1996, of which a new and expanded edition is forthcoming); and Eating Jewish style. Jewish Cooking in Italy from the Renaissance to the Modern Age (2000).
