Each month on Can We Talk?, the Jewish Women’s Archive features stories and conversations about Jewish women and the issues that shape our public and private lives. Alternating between a documentary style and a roundtable format, Can We Talk? includes profiles of historical and contemporary Jewish women, frank discussion of culture, politics, and current events, and little-known stories from our past and present. Contact us at podcasts@jwa.org. Tell us what you think of the podcast! Take our survey at https://jwa.org/podcastsurvey.
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Episode 48: A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
Gail Carson Levine is famous for writing retellings of classic fairy tales with a modern twist—like her best-selling novel Ella Enchanted—but her most recent book, A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, takes readers back to a real time and place. It's set in Spain in the decade leading up to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. It's a tenuous time for Spanish Jews: They're being scapegoated for the Black plague, taxed out of economic viability, coerced into converting to Christianity, and threatened with torture and sometimes death. Ten-year-old Loma's Jewish family is in a unique position. Her financier grandfather has a special, though tense, relationship with the king and queen, and Loma soon finds herself at the center of events that determine the Jewish community’s future. In this episode, we talk with Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine about how she did her research for the book and what motivated her to write it.