Ledicia's Key: The Search for Family Through Six Centuries

"...a moving generational biography and wonderful historical romantic thriller. There are narrow escapes, chilling and tragic losses. The sweeping story and gorgeous locations would make a powerful mini-series." Mark W. Hammond, Emmy winner

Ledicia's Key, Yvette Nachmias-Baeu's fourth book, is a genealogical puzzle that pieces clues and follows generations of a family from the Spanish Inquisition to present-day New England. The author reaches backwards and forwards through history to highlight descendants from Generals to artists, from nobility to shopkeepers. Here is a symphony of diverse humanity, of love and war, and not always harmonious - played out in the sharps and flats of personal triumphs and political tragedies.

Encounter ancestors brutally forced from their homeland during the Spanish Inquisition; a great grandfather whose bravery prevented a city from being enveloped in flames; an uncle summoned by a king to negotiate Bulgarian neutrality during a war; and a family who escaped the ravages of history's madman to flee Nazi genocide as refugees seeking safety in Argentina - with all her vignettes wrapped and culminating in a modern-day love story.

Always as we follow the trail of the family, Baeu reminds us of a compelling if hard-won intergenerational truth: that ancestry is more than a DNA test and more than a family tree. It is the prevention of amnesia and the preservation of hard-won wisdom.

"...I couldn't stay away from reading this... the story, her writing and imagery, and language." Chaiya Zalles, Montessori Teacher Trainer