A melancholy young Jewish gem merchant, Abraham, born in Venice, has lived his life behind the ghetto walls of that damp, oppressive city. He has lost a wife and the son whose difficult birth killed her. Now there is nothing left for him there.In the autumn of 1598, Abraham chooses to seek his fortune far from the painful familiarity of Europe and travels halfway across the world to the lush and exotic Burmese kingdom of Pegu. An overpoweringly strange melange of sodden heat, colorful customs, and odd superstitions, it is a place and a people completely alien to him. Yet in Pegu, the jewel trader is not hated or shunned for his faith. Here Abraham is a man. Here he is free.But there is a price for his newfound freedom. Local custom demands that foreigners perform a duty Abraham finds both troubling and barbaric. While it is a responsibility many men would embrace eagerly, it mocks Abraham's moral beliefs and fills him with dread and despair...until Mya arrives to briefly share his bed.Barely more than a girl, she awakens something within him far more profound—and more pleasurable—than the guilt he anticipated. And when tragedy destroys the future that was planned for her, Abraham takes Mya in, offering her his home, his protection, and, unexpectedly, his love. But great social and political upheaval threatens to violently transform the entire Peguan empire—and the actions of the powerful will force fateful choices that could have devastating consequences for Abraham and Mya and their dreams for the future.
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Although a little difficult to get into at first, I really ended up enjoying this novel. It was interesting to hear the different points of view from the two main characters, one written in letter form and the other in simple bursts of thought. I liked how social expectations were reviewed and scrutinized by Abraham, and how he grew as a person as his time in Pegu passed. I also loved the overall historical setting, not something that is covered in many history classes.
