Hunting Midnight

Read Hunting Midnight Online

Authors: Richard Zimler

 

Praise for
Hunting Midnight:

 

“Zimler is always an exhilaratingly free writer, free of ordinary  taboos …
Hunting Midnight
shows Zimler now at the height of his  powers. The plot is worked out beautifully.”

London Magazine

 

“Zimler’s writing is pacey and accessible without ever
patronishing
the reader; deeply moving without descending into  schmaltz.”

Martin Bright,
Observer

 

“Zimler has this spark of genius, which critics can’t explain but  readers recognise, and which every novelist desires but few  achieve.”

Michael Eaude,
Independent

 

“I defy anyone to put this book down. It’s a wonderful novel: a  big, bold-hearted love story that will sweep you up and take you,  uncomplaining, on a journey full of heartbreak and light.”

Nicholas Shakespeare, author of
Bruce Chatwin
 and
The Dancer Upstairs

 

“An historically rich exploration of important ethical issues and  an exciting read as well.”

Peter Singer, bestselling author of
Animal Liberation
 and
One World: The Ethics of Globalization

 

“Reading
Hunting Midnight
was like discovering a rare gem.  Richard Zimler is a brilliant author with a touch of genius. I’ve  never met a character who touched my heart the way John did …”

Rendezvous Magazine
(USA)

 

“In his compelling and deeply moving novel, Zimler weaves a  gorgeous tapestry of rich historical and imaginative detail, in  which the human spirit transcends even the darkest abuses and  betrayals. The unforgettable characters of
Hunting Midnight
will  break and mend your heart.”

Elizabeth Rosner 2002 Ribalow Jewish fiction  prize-winning author of
The Speed of Light

 

“A wonderful novel that spans generations and crosses continents,  told with an unforgettable narration. An epic story that through a  quest for personal identity carries the reader into the mysterious  world of the secret Jews of Portugal in the 19th century. Better  than any history text I know, it contains all the ingredients of a  bestseller, to the great delight of Zimler’s fans including me!”

Esther Benbassa, author of  
The Jews of France
and
Sephardic Jewry

 

“An earnest and deliberate thriller of family secrets, [featuring]  florid prose, adventure and mystery.”

Kirkus Reviews

 

“Shocking … colorful … absorbing.”

Publishers Weekly

 

Some reviews of
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
:

 

“A fascinating novel with spellbinding subject matter.”

Elle

 

“Drenched in atmosphere and period detail.”

The Wall Street Journal  

 

“Zimler [is] a present-day scholar and writer of remarkable  erudition and compelling imagination, an American Umberto  Eco.”

Francis King,
Spectator

 

“A riveting literary murder mystery, his novel is also a harrowing  picture of the persecution of 16th-century Jews and, in passing,  an atmospheric introduction to the hermetic Jewish tradition of  the Kabbalah.”

Independent on Sunday

HUNTING MIDNIGHT

Richard Zimler

To all those who fought to end the abomination of slavery in the United States and southern Africa. And to Midnight and his people.

Grateful thanks to my editor, Samantha Bruce-Benjamin, for her extraordinary passion, intelligence, generosity and hard work.

 

Thanks too, to Cynthia Cannell for her loyalty and enthusiasm, and to Kate Miciak for her faith and support.

 

It is sometimes a difficult job reading an early draft of a novel, and I am grateful to Douglas Herring, Ruth G. Zimler, Michael Rakusin, and Alexandre Quintanilha for their invaluable
comments
.

 

I am forever in debt to Laurens van der Post, whose books first started me hunting for Midnight, and to authors too numerous to name for their wonderful historical research.

 

Special thanks to Alex, who – like this book – links three continents.

A
fierce wind was driving the rain in off the sea as I made my way home across the slippery cobblestone streets of my beloved city of Porto.

It was May of 1798, a month after my seventh birthday. Carefully tucked away inside my cane basket were two scrolls of indigo muslin that I had agreed to fetch for my mother – but only in exchange for a favor, I have to confess. If this rain were to splash so much as an inch of her fabric, she would grumble to herself all evening and refuse to make me my favorite sweet. Hence, not so much for the continued protection of the goods themselves as for the sake of my sweet tooth, I sought out shelter.

A certain inherited distrust of all things religious prompted me to choose Senhor David’s old bookshop, rather than the
whitewashed
chapel next door, as a place to wait out the storm. As I entered through the low doorway, David encouraged me to leave my basket behind his writing desk and to remove my sodden boots, which he dangled over the iron railing by his fireplace.

“Senhor David,” I asked, “may I go to the British Isles?”

“Off with you, lad!” he said, smiling.

I dashed over the creaking wooden floor to the musty back room where he kept his treasure trove of English books, which Father and I had referred to as the British Isles for as long as I could remember.

I ought to explain that although I was born in Porto, a provincial city of sixty-five thousand souls in the north of Portugal, Father had had the honor – as he so often referred to it – of having been born a Scotsman. I was not yet aware of it, but when I spoke English, I had a distinctly Scottish accent.

Of tightly packed shelving, mildew, and thread-legged spiders
these British Isles were blessed in abundance but, alas, they boasted nary a decent window save for the small octagonal skylight in the low, sagging ceiling. The rain was pelting down on its yellowing glass, creating a pattering din, rather like mice scampering.

It was so dark that I could barely see my own hands, and I was just considering asking for a candle when the sun suddenly peeked through the clouds, illuminating a bookshelf against the wall. Stepping closer, I could see that one of the titles was embossed in glittering gold letters –
The
Fox
Fables.
As no author’s name was printed on the binding and since I was given to flights of fancy, I imagined that a clever fox had written them himself.

I shooed away Hercules, the calico cat whom Senhor David kept to chase off rats, plopped down on the sawdust of the floor, and opened the book. Inside, thick yellowing pages bore colorful drawings of dogs, cats, monkeys, elephants, and many other animals – a Noah’s Ark of sorts. I was so excited by my find that I could read only the opening sentences of each story. Wishing to inquire its price of Senhor David, yet dreading the prospect of a sum beyond my means, I stood up to consider my options. That was when a single sheet of blue-tinted paper, delicate as a butterfly’s wing, fell from the book’s pages, fluttering down to finally settle on my right foot.

I picked it up and glanced around surreptitiously. Senhor David was sitting at his desk, smoking his pipe, absentmindedly rubbing his hand over his bald head while studying a large map. Hercules had curled up in his lap.

I crept into the darkest corner of the room and saw that I held a letter written in elegant script, addressed to a woman named Lúcia. It began,
My
beloved,
will
you
think
me
too
bold
if
I
were
to
say
that
I
fall
into
the
arms
of
slumber
each
and
every
night
imagining
your
hand
over
my
heart?

Next I read of moist lips, moonlight, fainting spells, and orange blossoms. I recognized the word
seios
–
breasts…. What glorious, heart-stopping wickedness that portended! Many other words were unfamiliar to me, however. I’d need a dictionary to know how daringly shocking this letter might be. It was signed with a
swirling flourish by a man named Joaquim. He even dotted the
i
with a wee heart.

I wondered if
The
Fox
Fables
had been a present from Joaquim to Lúcia. Perhaps it had displeased her and she had sold it to Senhor David, forgetting she had concealed her suitor’s letter inside. Since it bore no date, the two lovers might very well be grandparents by now. Though it was possible they were still unmarried and were at that very moment planning their next forbidden tryst at the top of the Clerics Tower, two hundred feet above the city’s streets.

I tucked the letter into the pocket of my breeches, took a snootful of musty air into my lungs to rouse my courage, and marched to Senhor David. Handing him the book as innocently as my racing heart would allow, I dropped into his large palm all the copper coinage then in my possession: precisely four five-
reis
pieces. Judging from his wrinkled nose, this grand sum of twenty
reis
was not nearly enough. I begged him to let me pay for the book a little each week, giving him a helpless look, as was my wont when entreating an adult.

“I simply can’t, John,” he said, shaking his head. “Were I to conduct business on credit, I would soon be a pauper.”

“Please, please,
please
– I shall have the rest of the payment for you in one month,” I whined, clueless as to how I might fulfill such a promise but unwilling to see the beautifully illustrated fables escape my possession.

I might have simply left with the letter, of course, but I could not imagine owning it without the book. That would have been robbery.

Knowing he was about to refuse again, I called upon my theatrical gifts and assumed the air of a destitute orphan. Senhor David laughed, since he had seen this coming. As recompense for my effort, however, he agreed to my offer with a pat on my head, though by way of a warning he said, “Should you fail to abide by our agreement, I shall take
you
as payment, whereupon, make no mistake, I shall have my wife boil you in a stew for supper!”

“Being mostly bones and beak, I’d taste like a seagull,” came my reply, which pleased David so much for some reason that he
laughed again and pulled up a stool for me, instructing me to examine my new purchase while waiting for the storm to pass.

And so I began to read the first few fables, most memorably “Mouse, Frog, and Eagle,” whose moral is:
He
that
pursueth
evil
pursueth
it
to
his
own
death.

When the sun returned for good half an hour later, I thanked Senhor David, slipped on my boots, and raced home. After receiving high praise from Mother for taking such good care of her cloth, I took the stairs two at a time to my room, where I and the letter could be alone.

I paid for my treasures one month later, just as I had promised, with coins earned helping Papa to clean his study and our storeroom.

I slept with the book and the letter under my mattress for months. The two objects became as inseparable in my mind as Joaquim and Lúcia themselves.

It is more than likely that my mother and father discovered the letter while tidying my room, but they never mentioned it. Years later, I gave it to my bride – along with
The
Fox
Fables
–
as my wedding gift.

Upon her death, I clung to them as though they might save me from a shipwreck. I have them with me still.

*

Since my purchase of
The
Fox
Fables
,
I have jeopardized my eyesight with thousands of evenings spent reading by my hearth or in bed by the light of a candle. Long acquaintance with the art of storytelling has made me aware that a tale such as the one I am about to tell ought to have a man or woman of universal sympathy or special bravery at its heart. And yet I feel myself wholly lacking for such a role. Furthermore, I am unsure of my own talents in giving an accurate account of the events that brought me from Portugal to America.

I therefore feel that the proper and most honest way to begin is with a lad of twelve named Daniel, whom I had the good fortune to meet by accident some twenty-four years ago. It was he who would set in motion the ripples that would later carry me across the Atlantic Ocean to America. If I am worthy of the central
place in this story that I shall come to occupy later on, then it is, in part, due to the courageous example he set.

As I prepare to write of Daniel and many other things besides, I find myself speculating on what secret messages may flutter out of the pages of this tale of mine and fall at your feet. I can only hope that whatever reaches your hands encounters a receptive heart and an unbiased soul.

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