Beyond the Transparent Bottom

The year is 1540 on the Carribean island of Hispaniola. Tobias, an apostate who ran away from home as an adolescent and joined Columbus’ crew, which left the same year on his famous exploration journey, is being held prisoner in the local jail, awaiting execution. In the little time he has left, he shares his story. The second half of the book provides a different perspective on the events: it is in the form of a letter from Columbus to King Ferdinand of Spain, written in 1506. In it, Columbus describes his four great journeys to India, and his wish to embark on a fifth journey, which he believes is more important than all of the others: an expedition to Jerusalem, which is under Muslim conquest. Shimoni’s epic novel is a master class in storytelling, at once a meditation on the struggle between the power of institutions and man’s boundless creativity, and a glimpse of the foreign territory that lurks within the human heart.