The Convert

A Novel

By: Stefan Hertmans

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith

Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards

In this dazzling work of historical fiction, the Man Booker International long-listed author of War and Turpentine reconstructs the tragic story of a medieval noblewoman who leaves her home and family for the love of a Jewish boy.

In 11th-century France, Vigdis Adelaïs, a young woman from a prosperous Christian family, falls in love with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and yeshiva student. To be together, the couple must flee their city, and Vigdis must renounce her life of privilege and comfort. Pursued by her father’s knights and in constant danger of betrayal, the lovers embark on a dangerous journey to the south of France, only to find their brief happiness destroyed by the vicious wave of anti-Semitism sweeping through Europe with the onset of the First Crusade.

What begins as a story of forbidden love evolves into a globe-trotting trek spanning continents, as Vigdis undertakes an epic journey to Cairo and back, enduring the unimaginable in hopes of finding her lost children.

Based on two fragments from the Cairo Genizah - a repository of more than 300,000 manuscripts and documents stored in the upper chamber of a synagogue in Old Cairo - Stefan Hertmans has pieced together a remarkable work of imagination, re-creating the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers whose steps he retraces almost a millennium later. Blending fact and fiction, and with immense imagination and stylistic ingenuity, Hertmans painstakingly depicts Vigdis' terrible trials, bringing the Middle Ages to life and illuminating a chaotic world of love and hate.

©2020 Stefan Hertmans (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Extraordinarly good.... An astonishing take.... Hertmans conjures the medieval world with the same sensuous detailing that was so effective in War and Turpentine." (The Sunday Times London)

"Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care.... The book has a quiet intimacy to it." (Kirkus Reviews)

“[A] commanding historical novel...[that] will satisfy readers willing to be swept away into a starkly different time.” (Publishers Weekly)

Nicely done

Easy to get absorbed in this mix of a historical travelogue with a sometimes difficult to hear tale of human on human cruelty - but worth the ride.

Unique Format

I enjoyed this unique format wherein the author's modern-era travel log interrupts the story, but am aware that some readers might find it distracting. Tracing the steps of history are exciting. The roads we travel, the hills we climb, the streams we cross might have played an important part of another person's life story many years ago. Fun to think about.

Hypnotic

This book is so richly written I had to stop myself from devouring it in one big bite.I rationed these words, pausing ever now and then to savour a particular sentence.
The writer blends bits of fact in with his fiction, so skillfully I am not sure what is real and what is imagined of the woman"a life.
Splendidly written, the narrator's delivery of this story is hypnotic .

Stefan Hertmans + Nicholas Guy Smith = *****

The sense of awe and wonder that Mr. Smith brings to Mr. Hertmans latest novel is extraordinary. The same can be said for War and Turpentine, the prior novel that introduced me to Mr. Hertmans. Mr. Smith also narrated/performed A Gentleman in Moscow, which truly brought that novel to life. Most definitely treat yourself to The Convert.

Captivating

Every aspect of this book was amazing. The narrative is beautiful; the history fascinating. This is among my all time favorites.

story would be better with different narration

The story was good and I regret that I didn't read it . Listening to it probably didn't do it justice. The narrator was a bit too adenoidal. His reading was not exactly monotonous, but with almost every sentence in the book, his voice rises and falls in the same manner. The lack of variation in the reading really did make it to struggle to finish the book.

Great Book

Interesting and tragic story of a young girl who could have lived in any century. Loved the way the author juxtaposed the story with his research.

Loved every bit of it

A Beautiful story of a woman who sacrifices her beliefs and her family for the love of her life. She went through hardships but the love for her children was always present. Interesting facts from the medieval times very well narrated I couldn’t stop listening!

A padded mix of history and imagination

Never really got involved in either thread. The story of the convert was too removed and the story of the author’s research was too precious. Excellent reader though.

I loved this book, but...

I loved this book. The story, stitched together from fragments recovered from the Cairo Genizah, is engrossing and moving. I very much enjoyed the interspersing of the narrator's recreation of the story with the story itself, and Nicholas Guy Smith's performance was, as in A Gentleman in Moscow, excellent. BUT, someone should have tutored Mr. Smith in the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew words in the book. At first it was kind of funny, but when names and words that appeared often were mispronounced it was mildly annoying. I don't blame Mr. Smith, but I think there should have been an editor who could have corrected the pronunciation.