La Straniera by Stefan Hertmans

La Straniera by Stefan Hertmans

published by Marsilio Editori is the sad history, reconstructed with great ability, of Vigdis Adelaid and her big love David. Vigdis was born on 1070 in Normandia, Rouen. She is beautiful and she is the baby of a very rich family. For this reason her education is beauty, centered in the main purpose of preparing her for a beautiful wedding with another rich young man so that she can be helpful for her entire family.

Her destiny and her heart will speak a different language in comparison to the one of her family. When still little she meets a child of her same age more or less killed by christians just because Jewish. This episode will torment her. When a teenage, walking along the street where a lot of jewish lived she sees a new boy, arrived from a distant land, with black hair and intelligent eyes: David. 

They fall in love immediately and Vigdis will search for him, speaking with him, hidden always in different places because at that time an union between a christian and a Jewish was not possible. Mouths could not stay closed and started to whispering. The parent of Vigdis will close their daughter in a convent, but she will escape away with David, her big love. The teenagers thought that they could make it. They hadn't consumed yet their passion and it will happen on the road. At a certain point Vigdis noticed that she was pregnant. 

In the while, searching for a stability they lived in different cities. When she had the first baby she joined the jewish community rejecting her christian religion and changing her name. David had thought, thanks also to the beautiful meaning of it that Hamoutal was the best one. In total with David Vigdis had three children but the couple remained terrorized by the christians and the possibility, still high, of the destruction of their family and their dream of living a good life all together. And in fact it happened. Hamoutal, destroyed, will go away, in Africa, returning but always changing places, being peaceless. In the while, when in Africa, shemarried another man and had a baby but she needed to see the rest of her old family thinking that David and her children were still alive. Her new arrival at home didn't bring any answer and she left again, till at her complete perdition.

What attracted the most Vigdis regarding the Jewish religion was the profoundity of culture, and traditions anchored in the centuries.

What it is so sad is that two young people could not live well their love because of their different religions. It sounds not just sad but horrible and anacronistic.

The history of Vigdis/Hamoutal could be tell by Hertmans with precision and accuracy, because letters and documents old something like 1000 years are still known and preserved, because for jewish memory is important and crucial.

Highly recommended.

I thank Marsilio for the physical copy of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori