Review: De sleutel tot het familiegeheim, Luize Valente

When Iona falls in love with the Jewish Daniel she recognizes some of his daily rituals and starts to thing she has some Jewish inheritance too. With the young journalist Anna they start the search for answers. Starting with the move of hundreds of Jews from Amsterdam to Recife, Brazil in the 17th century they follow the trail of her family story when the Portuguese take over the area and force Jews to either move away or convert to Christianity. These new Christians often kept their Jewish rituals which are still used by a lot of Brazilians today who are not aware of their heritage. Eventually Iona discovers the secret of the family key in New York.

Luize Valente is a journalist. She has developed a specific interest in the Jewish rituals in Brazil and created two documentaries about it.

I borrowed this book from Judith over at Leeswammes. She posted it on her blog and I liked the look and sound. It is funny to read about parts of your countries history you are not really aware of. Besides all the interesting history facts the development in the story was very interesting too. I like stories that unravel hidden family secrets and it was possible to puzzle along at some points. Still this book only got three stars. The most important reason for me to give it only three stars is atmosphere. Iona and Anna would go somewhere with a lot of questions, arrive at an interesting side, find some answers and that is it. I did not feel surrounded by the story. I had that same problem with the characters. First I though Anna would be easy to connect to but at some point I lost interest as she did not develop any further. I did not like Iona that much as she was not always honest even though Anna tried her best to help her.

De sleutel tot het familiegeheim
Author: Luize Valente
Publisher: Nieuw Amsterdam
Pages: 288
Format: paperback
ISBN-13: 9789046815199
Original title: O Segredo do Oratório
Publisher: eBook | Paperback

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