“It was knowing that he had once been Jewish that set Martin apart.” Thus begins the novel A Stranger to My Brothers by Henye Meyer. It is historical fiction, set during the First Crusade. Martin, the main character is a fifteen year old Jewish boy who was taken from his family and raised by non-Jews in a small English village. Martin, who doesn’t identify as a Jew, gets involved in the First Crusade, witnesses its horrible consequences for the Jews, meets a Jewish survivor, and learns more about what it means to be Jewish.
Like Henye Meyer’s other books, the novel is based on extensive research and provides vivid details. The main character travels from England to Constantinople (present day Istanbul), and we readers travel with him and learn about the locations he passes and the time period overall. The book accurately portrays the terrible predicament of Jews in European communities, hunted and massacred by blood-thirsty and gold-thirsty crusaders. The descriptions might be too gory for younger or especially sensitive children, though they are, unfortunately, true to history. According to the amazon.com description, the book is recommended for ages 12 and up.