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From the Ashes of Lisbon: A Crypto-Jewish Saga of Courage and Survival (Large Print Edition)
Hardcover
General FictionHistorical FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher: D. Nunez Vas
Published: Dec 3 2025
Pages: 162
Weight: 1.48
Height: 0.44 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
From the Ashes of Lisbon is a sweeping historical novel based on the hidden world of the Sephardic Jews who lived in secret under the Portuguese Inquisition. Inspired by the author's own Nunez Vas family lineage, it follows the extraordinary journey of Regina Nunez Vas-born into a respected Crypto-Jewish family in Évora-whose life is shattered when soldiers arrive at her home and force her parents to make a fateful decision. Sent away under the false identity of Rebbecca Vas Dias, Regina escapes into a world of danger, exploitation, and silence. She flees Portugal alone, carrying only fragments of memory: hidden Shabbat candles, whispered prayers, and the hope that her family may still live.
Her flight leads her to Amsterdam, where the early Portuguese Jewish community is beginning to flourish. Terrified of exposure, she takes work as a servant in the home of the Brinkmeyers, a Dutch couple whose compassion changes the course of her life. Mrs. Brinkmeyer slowly recognizes Regina's hidden Judaism, not with suspicion but with tenderness. In their home, Regina finds dignity, safety, and the first glimmer of a future not defined by fear.
As she steps into Amsterdam's open Jewish life, Regina meets Rafael EnrÃquez Diego Toledano, a thoughtful architect whose family also fled Iberian persecution. Their slow-growing bond leads to a remarkable wedding in the Esnoga-made unforgettable when Regina's long-lost sister, Hanna, suddenly appears at the chuppah, creating one of the community's most cherished stories of reunion.
Regina and Rafael build a home that becomes a refuge for the vulnerable, weaving Dutch kindness with Sephardic strength. Their children grow in a household shaped by faith, memory, and the generosity of the Brinkmeyers-who become true grandparents in every sense.
The past, however, resurfaces when a traveler from Portugal brings a letter written in Regina's father's trembling hand. His words reveal decades of suffering, loss, and the desperate hope that Regina survived. Determined to save her aging parents, Regina and Rafael mobilize merchants, rabbis, sailors, and secret Jewish networks to bring them safely across a dangerous route from Portugal to Amsterdam.
Their arrival is one of the novel's most powerful moments-Regina running across the pier crying Mãe!, her mother searching through the crowd, and the embrace of a family reunited after years of terror and silence. The scene becomes the emotional heart of the novel: a testament to the endurance of love against the brutality of history.
The story concludes with both sorrow and light. The Brinkmeyers pass away peacefully, honored by the Jewish community they protected. Their burial symbolizes the merging of two worlds-Dutch compassion and Sephardic resilience. Regina's family grows, carrying the legacies of those who raised, sheltered, and saved her.
From the Ashes of Lisbon is a moving, immersive novel of exile, identity, and the unbroken spirit of the Sephardic Jews. It honors the author's own ancestors who fled Iberia in the 1600s and rebuilt their lives in Amsterdam, and offers readers a profound journey through loss, love, faith, and survival. It is a testament to those who kept their Judaism alive in whispers-and lived long enough to reclaim it in song.
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