PAULINE CHANDLER's review:

Many thanks for the opportunity to review this novel - I loved it! I've jotted down some thoughts, so here goes...

'Shylock's Daughter' is a breath-taking read. Mirjam Pressler has created a fascinating picture of life in the Jewish Ghetto of sixteenth-century Venice, with a mass of historic detail seamlessly embedded in each chapter. The characters are totally engaging. Shylock and Jessica breathe for us, with full emotional lives that prevent them from being stereotyped. In her understated way, Mirjam Pressler has given us a Shylock we can understand.

There are two devices that I particularly love. The first is the voice of Leah, with her patient and wise advice. Shylock's willingness to consult Leah shows a humility which engages our sympathy - a masterstroke. The second is Jessica's long and heartbreaking coming-to-realisation of herself as the 'two-faced woman', watching herself acting the part of Lorenzo's wife, forever cut off from her roots. This is an anagnorisis fit for a Greek tragedy: terrifying and endlessly moving.

Mirjam Pressler, with a wonderfully kind gesture, allows her a lifeline - her unborn child. 'Shylock's Daughter' is a complex and powerful novel, an incisive, wise and tender exploration of large issues - race, family, blood, love, revenge, friendship. It stays in the mind.