Publisher's Synopsis
In the heart of Chartres Cathedral, the ultimate quest for the supreme Light. When the painter Chaim Soutine flees the Nazis in 1941 and comes to hide in the French city of Chartres, he does not imagine that he will be confronted with the mystery of the Divine Blue, the supreme Light that seven hundred years ago had shone inside that very cathedral. The novel traces the quest for this Light, a heavenly blue Light called the Techelet that the most savage persecutions and even the Nazi final solution, have not been able to extinguish. It is the tale of three Jewish lives inextricably linked together by the same constellation and bound to the same destiny. All three are in search of the famous "Divine Blue," which -- according to tradition -- has the power to bestow supreme Grace on the purest souls: in the Middle Ages, during the construction of the Chartres cathedral, a Jewish master glazier attempts to reach God by the mean of this Light, using a piece of stained glass he has created. He will be aided by Hosea, a young fugitive. In German-occupied Chartres, Soutine will be confronted by a senior Nazi officer, a professor of medieval history who after reading an old manuscript has decided to go in search of that legendary stained glass. Finally, in the early 1970's, a young student named Raul discovers in a chapel window a panel of stained-glass whose bluish glow helps heal deranged minds.... This book traces how, from the Middle Ages to the present day, these three characters act to fulfill the highest of all hopes of the Jewish people despite the hatred and persecution they encounter. This search for fulfillment is also driven by a passionate love that relentlessly persists throughout the centuries until its final realization, emphasizing that only pure love can open the path to Divine Light.