The Last Ember

by Daniel Levin

  “And it’s time we brought both of you home.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  In antiquity, the editor of gladiatorial matches often decided the combatants’ fates. I am grateful that my editor, Jake Morrissey at Riverhead, proved more merciful than his ancient counterparts, and assisted me in giving this project life.

  And let me rush to thank my father, Dr. Sheldon Levin, for his love of history and my mother, Lynda Levin, for her love of story. Their respective passions are reflected on every page.

  I am also enormously indebted to Suzanne Gluck and Erin Malone of the William Morris Agency for believing in this project from the start. Also at William Morris, thank you to Tracy Fisher and Raffaella De Angelis, Sarah Ce glarski, Eliza Chamblin, and Liz Tingue. At Riverhead a talented core group—Sarah Bowlin, David Koral, Jane Herman, Muriel Jorgensen, Nicole LaRoche, Lisa Amoroso, and designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich—enhanced the project at every turn.

  With sadness, I also acknowledge Angelo Pavoncello, on whom the character Mosè Orvieti is—fortunately—only partly based. Angelo died during the writing of this novel, and I treasure the wisdom he imparted during our strolls through (and beneath) the Ghetto.

  My gratitude also to Director Carmela Vircillo Franklin for her hospitality during my stay at the American Academy in Rome; to the Academy’s assistant librarian, Denise Gavio; to David Petrain, Rome Prize winner in Ancient Studies; and to all the other fellows and staff who welcomed me as one of their own.

  Thank you as well to Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar; Professor Elisa Debenetti, for use of her photographs of Giuseppe Valadier’s nineteenth-century sketches; fearless Domus Aurea expert Simona O’Higgins; Generale Giovanni Nisti’s staff at the Comando della Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale; and a member of the Waqf Authority who guided me around the Temple Mount with integrity, despite his fear of possible consequences.

  And for their inspiration and support, I would like to acknowledge Matthew Pearl; Ezra Stark; Joshua and Andrea Leibowitz; Alessandro Di Gioacchino; Sol Comet and Muriel Cohen; Ted Comet; Clement Roberts; Scott Weinger; gladiator Bob Stark; Sasson Marcus; Brett Spodak; Oshrit Raffeld; Marla Stark; Caryl Englander, for whom the impossible just takes longer; and whether he likes being mentioned or not, mayn shver.

  And most of all, thank you to my wife, Laura Levin—painter and physician. I cannot fully express my gratitude for her tireless dedication, her keen editing eye, her courage, and most important, her faith in me. A biblical proverb says that a house rests on the wisdom of the wife. So does this novel.