'L'

About the Book

After yearly pogroms Mosseh Meyr and his family emigrate to London . Mosseh takes a job as caretaker, but can't make ends meet. He becomes a successful cobbler and shoe maker. This is a bad move, as at that time, working in trade was forbidden to Jews.- Nidben, a competitor shoe maker collects Mosseh on the coldest night of winter and hangs him - together with Mosseh's entire family of 10 children, 9 of whom are frozen to death. - Nidben has stolen Fridd from Mellitus, his own brother, and marries her against her will. Fridd goes to the Cross of oak and finds Leah Mosseh's youngest child, still alive. She takes baby [now called Lily] and brings her up as her own child, but hides the necklace bearing the Hebrew 'L' for years. The Jews suspect that 'L' is still alive, somewhere in London. Both communities, Christian and Jewish, rise up against Nidben, the killer. Many years before, Nidben poisoned Mellitus to deprive Fridd of her childhood sweetheart, but Mellitus is still alive and returns, to eventually marry Fridd. King Richard plots to rid England of the Jews. The entire Jewish community is then assembled at Queenstown, Kent, waiting for boats to carry them to Gaul. Lily has found the necklace and realises who she is. She leaves her loving Christian family and rushes to join the exodus of the Jews. King Richard orders the drowning of all Jews in the English Channel.- Of 16000 souls only 2 survive, by swimming across the waters to Gaul - one is Reuven the boy she has promised herself to, and Lily herself.

About the Author

Laura Levy, the author of 'L' was born in Berlin, Germany, months after Hitler came to power. When only 6 years old, she was evacuated to old Chechoslovakia, but, after 5 years of being hidden in the mountains, she was taken back to Berlin, to experience the siege of Berlin, May 1945.- When survival became an ordeal by starvation, she and her mother emigrated the England, where she soon gained a degree in fine art. She worked in advertising, but, after raising a family, she began to write. Laura's subjects always included only Londoners - those who were born here, lived and died here, went away, but eventually returned to this great city.