What Was Forbidden

a novel

By: Jonathan Bockian

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Paperback | 20 October 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
360 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 2.03

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Venice, 1672. When Yehudit's beloved brother Mordechai is found murdered in the Ghetto's central campo, her search to know what happened upends her life as a dutiful, widowed mother. Before his death, Mordechai, disaffected merchant, outspoken skeptic, rebelled against pressure to conform to the expectations that his family and the Ghetto community place on one of their own, and to the limits imposed by gentile Venice. As Yehudit exposes conflicts that shaped Mordechai's final weeks, she increasingly confronts the boundaries of her own independence. Yehudit's tenacity and determination to find and speak the truth set her on a collision course with her family and the entrenched power structure of the Ghetto.

What Was Forbidden is inspired by an inscription in the Venice Ghetto commemorating the death of Mordechai Baldosa, who it says was "slaughtered like a lamb." The plot is set against the true backdrop of two historical movements-one political, the other religious-whose echoes reverberate to this day, each of which ignited hope of freedom from oppression and bigotry, but in diametrically opposite ways. The novel's braided narrative alternates between Mordechai's slide toward peril in the weeks before his death and Yehudit's journey afterward, to tell a richly layered story about conscience, the clash between belief and reason, and what one woman may be forced to give up to remain true to herself-and to the brother she loved.

Industry Reviews

"... What Was Forbidden is a masterfully woven tale of love, loss, ideology, and resilience ... a gripping literary mystery ... asks powerful questions about identity, freedom, and the cost of truth in a world unwilling to accept it ... [Yehudit's] quiet grief, her refusal to be silenced by the men around her, and her courage to confront the hypocrisy within her own community create a deeply compelling portrait of feminine strength in a patriarchal age ... With beautiful prose, richly developed characters, and thought-provoking themes, What Was Forbidden is both a mystery and a meditation on freedom, faith, and the struggle between progress and tradition ... Bockian's debut is as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally engaging-a literary triumph that lingers long after the final page." - Jeyran Main, Review Tales

"... captivating ... A gripping, erudite historical novel...." - Michele Sharpe, Forward Reviews

"Jonathan Bockians's WHAT WAS FORBIDDEN is an historical and philosophical mystery, different from Dan Brown's, say, or Umberto Ecco's, in his voicing of Jewish perspectives. While set in the same Venetian Ghetto as Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE, the time is a century later. Bockian's Ghetto is enlivened by his research, rich sensory descriptions, and complex characters, who, while solving a Jewish trader's murder, must confront the historic "swerve" towards modernism, where fanaticism and faith become indistinguishable and sects and schisms presage today's wars" - DeWitt Henry, award winning author, founder of Ploughshares literary magazine

"Tensely rendered, with flowing prose... A great historical fiction read." - Rachel Deeming, Discovery

"A terrific novel ... immensely literate, historically accurate, theological murder mystery." - Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of over a dozen books on Jewish mysticism and the novel Kabbalah: a Love Story.

Short listed for the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize 2025

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