Shadows of Trinity: A Historical Novel about the Golem of Prague by Allen Goldenthal

Book Description:

The crimes committed in Shadows of the Trinity are historical facts. The perpetrators, events, and repercussions are all true. Unfortunately, in the current legend as it’s written, the villains have all been hailed as heroes and the true saviors have been practically erased from the pages of history. This concealment of the actual events had a necessary purpose in order to prevent an outpouring of mob violence but as the city prepares to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of Judah Loew in September of this year, the man hailed as the hero behind the assumed legend, it overlooks the fact that there were actual crimes committed. Several people did pay with their lives, not withstanding that they many have deserved the punishment, but nonetheless, this was a case of serial murder and it deserves to have the events exposed.

Synopsis:

In the year of the Lord 1588, the city of Prague was held in the grip of terror, victim to the murderous rampage of an inhuman monster created from the seeds of hatred and sown through religious intolerance and mortal greed. If the Empire was to survive, it had to place its hopes of salvation in the hands of three men; a heretical priest, a failed prophet, and a king without a kingdom.

This is their story, exposing those intentionally proclaimed as its heroes to be nothing more than the notorious villains who were prepared to destroy their own world. While the true heroes were condemned to be victims of forgotten memories and lost souls. Three men deemed unworthy by the society that sought their protection, Giordano Bruno, Caesar de Nostradame, and Yakov Kahana, and how, when they were united one fateful day, they became “The Trinity...”

Shadows of the Trinity, for the most part, is a non-fiction historical novel, revealing the series of strange and world-shattering events that occurred during the years 1588 and 1589 in Prague, the Bohemian capital of the Austro-Hungary Empire.

Publisher's Website: www.eloquentbooks.com/ShadowsofTrinity.html

Author Bio:

Upon moving to New Zealand, Allen Goldenthal has been involved as a director of several companies, as well as a senior lecturer at Massey University. He has authored several veterinary journal articles, The Handbook of Veterinary Medicine for your Dog, and several works of historical fiction and non-fiction. He lives with his wife, Margaret, and their two children, James and Charlotte, on a small horse farm where they raise thoroughbred horses. Shadows of Trinity is his first major release as a historical novelist.

Author Website: http://www.legendsofthekahana.webs.com/

Excerpt:

The next blow from the staff struck him across the back of the neck and he began to swagger dizzily. The gravelly voice of the guard barked out another command but by this time his charge could barely discern what he said. It was laced with insults but that didn’t matter to him. His eyes were rotating wildly but he could ascertain from the moving shadows that another strike was about to rain down. He braced himself for the next blow, withdrawing his neck into his shoulders, shielding himself as best as he could, and waiting for the inevitable. Only when the sting of the metal didn’t come to pass, did he open his eyes to see what had gone right.
The guard’s arm remained motionless in mid flight; the supreme pontiff having interceded with a stern command.
“This man is our guest and I need him alive,” the Pope exclaimed. He leaned over the stooped figure and extended his hand upon the shoulder, more as a gesture of steadying the prisoner than any act of mercy or sympathy.
“May all your guests be so graciously entertained,” the captive responded.
“Be grateful for the mercies I extend to you. You are hardly in a position to refuse them,” the aged pontiff cautioned with the wave of a gnarled finger.
“Should I have the opportunity to extend the same hospitality to you in the future, be assured you will not find me wanting...”
With a wave of his hand, the Pope instructed his guard to finish the delivery of the restrained blow. There would be no tolerance for discourtesy.
The malicious force caused the prisoner to drop to his knees, but no sooner did he touch the marbled floor, he was scrambling to rise once again.
“You know, none of this is necessary, if you would just agree to accept the mission that I propose to you,” Sixtus advised. “Truly it would be in your best interest, Caesar, and all this can be avoided and ended agreeably.”
“You abduct me from my home in the middle of the night, transport me across the border into Italy, keep me prisoner for a crime that I never committed, and demand that I agree to a task that you refuse to tell me. I can’t see how any of this has been in my best interest,” Caesar summarized his situation sarcastically.
“Did I ever tell you that when I was a young boy, I had met your father,” Pope Sixtus reminisced. “I bet you didn’t know that. Your father had come to Italy for reasons unknown to me and I, as a young friar, was merely walking humbly along the road. When we passed, he stared musingly at me and cried out that one day I would be Pope.”
“And you resent my father for telling you your future?”
“No, I resent your father, Michel Nostradamus, for having a gift that he did not deserve. God’s gifts should be given only to those that are believers. Those that merit them, not to some carnival master who performed parlor tricks for the aristocracy and the wealthy.”
“My father had a different version of that story.”
“Pray tell.”
“He told me that he was traveling on the road when he saw the young Franciscan monk, Felice Peretti. He was so grieved to see that he would become Pope one day that he knelt before him and started to cry. And when you asked him why he was crying, it was due he said, “Because you would become Pope one day.” Trust me, those weren’t tears of joy.”

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