The Mapmakers Daughter ~ Laurel Corona

This was a complicated and complex book both to write, per the author and to read. I  am glad to have had the opportunity to read and review it although my feelings about it are mixed. Not my usual genre and a sad book for the most part, but nothing wrong with either of those facts.

Henry the Navigator and  the maps and voyages he sponsored were not unknown but the back story was fascinating. Pre expulsion Portugal and Spain between 1492 and 1497 is dealt with in the back story  which features Amalia the invented daughter of the mapmaker Jehuda Cresques. Jehuda, also known after his  conversion as Jaume Riba was son of Abraham, Jews in Portugal and Spain.

Amalia, and her daughter Eliana  who married Isaac Abravanel  are fictional characters who surely existed in some form. All of these men had wives and daughters who are unmentioned by history. Laurel Corona gives them a voice. Ferdinand and Isabella already had a voice but Corona makes their vacillation believable.

I received this copy from NetGalley for an honest review. I gave it close to four stars which is a definite like.