Rebellion

Read, Malcolm Kevin
Malcolm K. Read : PhD, University of Wales. Lecturer / senior lecturer, Auckland University. Visiting professorship, University of West Indies in Jamaica. Chair of the Department of Hispanic Lang / Lit - State University, New York. Author of numerous articles in major journals, books on Spanish language and literature, Marxism and psychoanalysis.

Rebellion is a historical novel that explores the racial and cultural tensions between Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities in Spain during the 16th century. In 1568, after decades of increasing harassment, the Moriscos of the Kingdom of Granada are driven into open rebellion. Torn between conflicting allegiances, Don Alonso del Castillo, translator and interpreter, finds himself sucked into the escalating violence. Following the defeat of the Moriscos, Don Alonso is further implicated in a devious strategy to salvage an Islamic culture threatened with total eclipse. As part of the strategy a number of holy relics are smuggled into the ruins of a former mosque. Rumours of a miracle begin to circulate. The Inquisitor Bartolomé de Bustamante, himself of converso extraction, is appointed to investigate and, even as more relics are discovered, gradually unpicks the threads of the mystery that will lead him into the heartland of the Christian establishment.