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Shifra Hochberg has a Ph.D. in English Literature from New York University and teaches at Ariel University in Israel. She has published 20 academic essays and is currently writing another novel.
Reviewed by Raanan Geberer for Readers' Favorite
Shifra Hochberg’s The Lost Catacomb is a fast-moving, fascinating journey throughout the centuries into the history of the “Eternal City,” Rome, and its Jewish community. American art historian Nicola Page and Italian-Jewish archaeologist Bruno Recanati have been called by the Vatican to investigate an elaborate underground crypt discovered on the property of a noblewoman. They are stunned when they discover a long-concealed room decorated with intricate wall paintings and gold leaf, and adorned with a mixture of Jewish and Christian symbols. Even more intriguing is a scroll that tells the story of an early Pope, the prominent Jewish woman he fell in love with, and the secret treasure he was preparing to show her. Soon, Nicola and Bruno fall in love themselves. But they’re being watched, and their work is bringing them into conflict with an evil, hate-filled and powerful man who will stop at nothing to reach his goals!
Shifra Hochberg keeps the reader’s attention by spinning several mysteries at once about the whereabouts of this treasure, about the gaps in Nicola’s family background and more. The scenes showing Nicola’s comfortable life in the United States are extremely realistic, as are the descriptions of contemporary life in Italy. Hochberg is also a master storyteller in the way that, from the beginning, she drops little hints of what is to come in the book--such as references to the Nazi era. For anyone interested in historical fiction, the troubled history of Jews in Italy, art history, and above all, the great Eternal City of Rome, The Lost Catacomb is a valuable treasure in itself.
