I have to say I liked it. Very straight ahead narration from the friend of Sister Teresa. Cannot say I learned any real theology but it was a good read. ( )

What is a Jewish woman like myself doing reading a novel based on the life of a woman destined to become a saint? I was very eager to read a another work by Barbara Mujica, a Spanish professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, an area local to me. I previously read her novel Frida and a book of her short stories, both of which I found outstanding. In addition, I saw that this book was based at the time of the Inquisition in Spain and discovered that this book had some reference to conversos, Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism or else faced imminent death.

I found this to be a fascinating read. It was presented as a series of old letters. Told from the point of view of Sister Angélica, a nun who was also friend to Teresa of Ávila, the novel reveals Teresa's story from the time she, as a young lady, had a "questionable" relationship with her male cousin, through her career as a nun, up to and including the time of her death. As this is a historical novel, not all of the characters in it were real, but many were. Without knowing ahead of time which characters were real and which weren't, it was almost impossible for me to tell while reading the story as all of the characters were true-to-life.

The only thing I found difficult to follow was the multiplicity of nuns' and friars' names in my effort to tell who was who. I didn't worry much about it, though, as I simply read through the story, not wanting to interrupt its own beautiful flow. For those concerned about such an issue, there is a complete listing of characters at the back of the book, identifying all of the individuals and stating if they were real or fictitious.

In the front of the book was a map of Spain showing the many places where Sister Teresa traveled and where she lived during her lifetime. I, fortunately, have had the chance to visit Seville, one of those cities. In my mind's eye, I could picture Teresa being active in that town.

For those who love the Spanish language, there is a liberal sprinkling of it, in simple idioms and in poetry, throughout the book. Thankfully, there are English translations as well, making such interjections understandable to those who do not speak or understand Spanish.

Of special interest to me was the relationship of the conversos to this story. I learned that Sister Teresa, who was destined to become a saint in the Catholic religion, had a grandfather who was a converso. Teresa's sister married into the Guzman family, also converso. Coincidentally, I too married into a Guzman family, and I know that our surname comes from my husband's paternal grandmother who immigrated to El Salvador from Spain. My husband is a convert to Judaism. Think of the surprise I had when I read the following lines from this book:

"Maybe they really were Jews. People surnamed for saints or cities usually are. In the old days they exchanged their Jewish family names--Benlevi, Benabu--for others that sounded more Christian, or at least more neutral. Many took the names of the cities where they lived: Jaen, Toledo, Cordoba."

By the way, there is a city named Guzman in Spain.

This book is beautiful. I really grew to love the character of Teresa. I admired her spirit of independence and her strength of character as woman despite the times that she was weak and ill - which were many. I am proud of her Jewish background - even if her own life made her destiny to follow the Catholic church. I am also thrilled that Barbara Mujica created such an excellent book which filled me with hours of fascinating reading. ( )