A best seller in Latin America in the 1980s, this novel of life in fifteenth-century Spain depicts a world in which both the Moors and the Jews are under attack. This is the formative period of the phenomenon known today as Crypto-Judaism, and Aridjis_s widely praised book, now available for the first time in an American paperback edition, will find a broad audience among readers fascinated by this aspect of Jewish history. In 1492, the Catholic rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled the Jews from Spain. In Homero Aridjis_ novel, the great saga of the expulsion comes to life with both historical and poetic resonance. A great Mexican poet, Aridjis embraces history and fiction with the warmth and insight of the lyrical vision.__Carlos Fuentes In this highly readable novel which deals with a special and painful chapter in history, Homero Aridjis combines erudition, sensitivity and poetic imagination. I recommend it warmly.__Elie Wiesel A novel of literary subtlety and sensibility. Few contemporary writers have captured so profoundly and with such style this era marked by three essential events: the establishment of the Catholic sovereigns, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the discovery of America.__ El Pa s(Madrid) Among worldwide bestsellers, 1492is the most similar to Umberto Eco_s The Name of the Rose; both are concerned with the trials of heretics and the violence employed against the dissident. Aridjis gives an encyclopedic vision of catastrophic times.__ La Jornada(Mexico City)