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The Ghost of Hannah Mendes

© Irene Taylor

This winter I had the chance to discover a new writer, Naomi Ragen, and I am hooked. We were house sitting for a dear friend and I happened to pick up Ms. Ragen's book, The Ghost of Hannah Mendes, while we were there one day. At first it was the title that caught my eye - thinking it was a good old fashioned mystery - and I found while it was a mystery in one sense, I couldn't have been more wrong in my first characterization of it.

The Ghost of Hannah Mendes is an intriguing tale. It begins with the haunting memoirs of Dona Gracia Mendes (who I believe is a true historical figure)which were written around 1568 A.D. That memoir sets the stage for the rest of the story. For it is really the story of millionaire Catherine De Costa, a Manhattanite who has suddenly learned that she only has a short time to live. Catherine at first rails against her fate, but finally comes to terms with it. She decides that she must be sure that her legacy will continue, and so she begins her attempts to bring her two beautiful but headstrong granddaughters into her world, and to encourage them to accept and embrace their Jewish heritage.

Catherine is aided in that task by the ghost of an ancestor, Hannah (Gracia) Mendes, who lived during the fifteenth century at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Hannah lived a life of luxury, her family hiding their true identity to maintain their life of leisure until the Spanish Inquisition led them to seek refuge in other countries. It is here that Naomi Ragen really excels, in her mingling of history and fiction,

In her attempt to find solace from her shocking news, Catherine turns to her family Bible and other precious books. She comes across a part of Hannah's memoirs that her family has kept safely for centuries. In a mingling of fantasy and reality, Catherine is visited by Hannah's ghost, who convinces her that she must send her granddaughters on a journey to find the rest of the old manuscript, and their true identities along the way.

From that point on, Catherine's and Hannah's story are intertwined, and the reader is treated not just to a tale of two sisters coming to know themselves, but also to the story of the mysterious life and journey of their ancestor Hannah Gracia Mendes. Naomi Ragen moves from present-day to glimpses of the past with ease, and the story is magical. Suzanne and Francesca, Catherine's granddaughters, go on the adventure of a lifetime, and fulfill not only Catherine's wishes, but Hannah's as well.