Here’s another historical adventure that came to me via the American Book Fest awards. It’s the tale of a young girl who escapes the Spanish Inquisition (and I WIL NOT SAY THAT NOBODY EXPECTS THAT) and flees to Northern Europe. Not the most common subject for a novel… and that’s a good thing. Welcome Barbara Stark-Nemon.
Hi Barbara. Introduce yourself, will ya?
Writing novels is my encore career, and I couldn’t feel luckier. I had a thirty-year career teaching English, working as a speech and language therapist and teacher consultant, and I loved that work. I’m grateful to have then been able to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a writer with the publication of three novels; Even in Darkness, Hard Cider, and Isabela’s Way. When I’m not writing, traveling, or visiting our three sons and eight grandchildren, I swim, garden, cycle, knit, quilt, and embroider in Ann Arbor, and Northport Michigan.
What’s Isabela’s Way about?
Isabela’s Way, set in the early 17th century, is the story of a 14-year-old embroideress who has to find her way out of Portugal, through Spain and France, to Germany to escape the Spanish Inquisition. She, and a young man from her home town are assisted by a network of supporters who work to help Conversos (forcibly converted or expelled Jews) to escape to safer cities. Isabela gradually realizes that her embroidery of coded symbols is used by the network to designate danger or safety of clandestine sanctuaries along her route. She is shocked to discover her family’s true origins, and must use all her resilience to surmount the danger and disorientation of her circumstances as she eludes the Inquisitor priest who is pursuing her. She grows up and comes to terms with a changing identity.
Holy cow! That’s not your average story. Where’d it come from?
Isabela’s Way came to me 15 years ago when I was on the third day of a bicycle trip from Portugal to the Alhambra in Spain. I had just huffed and puffed up a steep hill to a Celtic standing stone circle where if the sun fell in exactly the correct alignment, local legend had it that your ancestors would come to you. So maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when on the merciful glide down the hill to the next stop, a fourteen-year-old embroideress came to me with her story of escape from the Spanish Inquisition through a journey from Portugal to Spain, then France and finally to Germany. I told the girl to wait… I was writing Even in Darkness, and Hard Cider, my second novel, was in the wings.
My girl did wait, and I traveled three times to Spain, Portugal, France and Germany to research her. Then came Covid and I was restricted to continue my research online. A deep dive into Ancestry.com revealed my ancestor, who was born in 1586 in Abrantes, Portugal, and died in 1655 in Hamburg, Germany, providing both the time period and the escape route for Isabela’s story.
Totally unfair question: What’s your favorite scene?
My favorite scenes to write in Isabela’s Way turned out to be the ones involving the herbal healer and dye maker, Ana Martel Gerondi. She is a skilled and savvy member of the secret network helping Isabela reach her father. Her knowledge and skill at healing, her imposing figure, her quiet strength and deep passion made her one of my favorite characters.
Where can we learn more about your work?
https://www.instagram.com/bannstark
https://barbarastarknemon.substack.com
https://www.instagram.com/bannstark
Check out The Deserter- a Tale of the Foreign Legion. “Wayne Turmel’s The Deserter manages to feel both old fashioned and strikingly original. While it possesses qualities of the adventure tales of old—whether that be those of daring from Scott and Cooper or stoical Hemingwayesque figures or most directly P.C. Wren of Beau Geste fame with even a bit of T.E. Lawrence. “– Michael Harnett, author, Windmill Bluff
It’s an American Book Festival 2026 Winner for Best Adventure/Historical Novel!
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