The Life of the Marrano

Once, the father showed little Francisco a family relic—a vintage key that opened the gates of knowledge for their ancestors. Soon, the father—a physician, baptized Jew Diego da Silva—and the boy's older brother were accused by the Inquisition of secret Judaism, and the mother died, unable to bear the grief. Francisco was left alone but kept the memory of his family, the key, and the faith of his ancestors, deciding to become a physician. Thus began the life path of the doctor and humanist Francisco Maldonado da Silva (1592–1639), who, unafraid of the ruthless machine of the medieval Inquisition, openly defended his faith and freedom and proved throughout his life that one can break the body, but not the spirit.
Marcos Aginis was born in Argentina in 1935 to a family of Jewish immigrants. As a child, he learned that all his relatives in Europe had been killed by the Nazis. Aginis believes that this prompted him to become a writer. The novel "The Life of the Marrano," first published in 1991, resulted from the author's extensive archival work.