An engrossing novel based on the remarkable true story of Juan Luis Vives, a Spanish academic and humanist, secretly Jewish and since dubbed 'the Godfather of psychoanalysis’, who made a contentious visit to the Tudor court of Henry VIII in the 1520s. 

It is 1522. Juan Luis Vives, a renowned academic, flees Spain to avoid the fires of the Inquisition. When England's Sir Thomas More offers him the role of tutor to Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, he eagerly accepts. While publicly navigating life as a 'New Christian’, Vives is quickly drawn into the secretive and dangerous world of London's Jewish community.

Inside the Tudor court, the king and queen separately seek Vives's assistance to support their opposed demands. He must betray one to help the other, knowing his decision could cost him his life. Whom will he choose? Not only his survival, but that of his family and his entire people hang in the balance.'