The Year of the Sword

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With reviews by Goldy, a teen who has read them all (well, most of them).

This book covers a common Jewish theme – anti-Semitism. It is set in the midst of the dreadful catastrophe that befell the Jewish people in Poland over three hundred years ago, a catastrophe that is all but forgotten. It is a story about the violent pogroms that characterized the Cossack uprisings of 1648 and 1649, the infamous years of "Tach and Tat", as they have become known in Jewish history.

The suffering of the Jewish people during the Cossack insurrections defies description. Two thirds of the Jews of the Kingdom of Poland perished, and the survivors were totally demoralized. The Golden Age of Polish Jewry came to a bloody and abrupt end. Told as historical fiction, from the perspective of the Pulichever family (first introduced in The Promised Child).

"The Year of the Sword" is the third book in the Ruach Ami Series. The other books are:
The Promised Child
The Dream
(The Year of the Sword)
Twilight
The Imposter
The Purple Ring
Envoy from Vienna
The Marrano Prince