The Weight of Ink**: A Novel by Rachel Kadish | Conversation Starters** In 2017, author Rachel Kadish published her book The Weight of Ink. Since then, it has received critical acclaim. It has been hailed as the winner of the National Jewish Book Award. It also became a bestseller in the USA Today list. The Weight of Ink is a jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers. The setting is London during the 1660s and the early twenty-first century. The lives of two women of remarkable intellect are interwoven in this remarkable tale. The first woman is named Ester Velasquez. She is an immigrant from Amsterdam. She was permitted to serve a blind rabbi as a scribe, just before the terrible plague hits the city. The other woman is Helen Watt. She is an ailing historian who has a passionate love for Jewish history. The Weight of Ink is an ambitious and sophisticated historical fiction novel about women who are separated by time, their choices and the sacrifices they made to reconcile their hearts and minds. Kristin Gibbons for the Jewish Book Council says that “the beauty of [The Weight of Ink] is in the variety of its milieus and sensibilities.” Toni Morrison describes Rachel Kadish as "gifted…astonishingly adept at nuance, narration, and the politics of passion." New Republic says that The Weight of Ink is “a deeply moving novel." Rose McGowan in New York Times Book Review Podcast says that The Weight of Ink “was so powerful and visceral…Incredible…I haven't been able to read a book since." A Brief Look Inside: EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER than the surface of its pages. The characters and their world come alive, and the characters and its world still live on. Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on. These questions can be used to.. Create Hours of Conversation: • Foster a deeper understanding of the book • Promote an atmosphere of discussion for groups • Assist in the study of the book, either individually or corporately • Explore unseen realms of the book as never seen before