A Journey To The End Of The Millennium

A Novel of the Middle Ages

By: A.B. Yehoshua

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

In the year 999, when Ben Attar, a Moroccan Jewish merchant, takes a second wife, he commits an act whose unforeseen consequences will forever alter his family, his relationships, his business-his life. In an attempt to forestall conflict and advance his business interests at the same time, Ben Attar undertakes his annual journey to Europe with both his first wife and his new wife. The trip is the beginning of a profound human drama whose moral conflicts of fidelity and desire resonate with those of our time. Yehoshua renders the medieval world of Jewish and Christian culture and trade with astonishing depth and sensuous detail. Through the trials of a medieval merchant, the renowned author explores the deepest questions about the nature of morality, character, codes of human conduct, and matters of the heart.

Historically fascinating

Like Mr Mani, A Journey to the End of the Millennium explores the history of the Jews who, like Yehoshua, were not Ashkenazi. I thought that the most powerful and, alas, most disturbing part of the novel was the section about the Apostate. The the reader views the horrors of medieval medicine and the Christian thinking behind the chronic massacres of Jews. I found the theme of the contrasts between the Central European Jewry and those of North Africa to be compelling. Of course that the slaves in the Parisian market were blond and blue-eyed overturns the modern stereotype of slaves as black. Indeed, the Moroccan Jews who are the main characters were described as dark-skinned. The novel gave me much to think about. The lack of the fifth star in my rating follows from my view of the story dragging at points, but that view may be due to my literary deficiency.