La señora

Persecuted by the Inquisition, expelled successively from Lisbon, Antwerp, Venice and Ferrara, the extraordinary destiny of the Lady traces a luminous furrow through all of sixteenth-century Europe, and ends in apotheosis in the Ottoman Empire. Real name Gracia Nasí, this young and seductive heiress to an immense fortune, enemy of the Habsburgs, the popes and the Republic of Venice, still today embodies the pride and pain of the Marranos, those Jews forced to convert, those "new Christians", for whom he became a legendary figure, and whose epic and fictional existence is restored by Catherine Clément. In the heart of the West torn by religious hatred and political conflicts, she will organize networks for the escape of the persecuted and the victims of intolerance. Before paying dearly for the protection of Istanbul, she sponsors the Ferrara Bible, the first Bible in Judeo-Spanish, a magnificent emblem that will be dedicated to her and will make her enter history. The Lady and her nephew are the protagonists of this flamboyant fresco in which love affairs and theological disputes are mixed, initiation to political power and great events of the time. A true novel, but also a short story, an epic, La Señora is also a prayer, a love song, a memorial.