Overview

"Anything But Yes is the true story of a young woman's struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts. With no access to the outside world, she withstood endless lectures, threats, promises, isolation and sleep deprivation. If she were she to utter the simple word ""yes,"" she risked forced baptism, which would mean never returning to her home, and total loss of contact with any Jew--mother, father, brother, sister--for the rest of her life. Even in Rome, very few people know the story of the Ghetto or the abduction of Jews, the story of popes ever more intent on converting every non-Catholic living in the long shadow of the Vatican. Young girls and small children were the primary targets. They were vulnerable, easily confused, gullible. Anna del Monte was different. She was strong, brilliant, educated, and wrote a diary of her experiences. The document was lost for more than 200 hundred years, then rediscovered in 1989. Anything But Yes is also based on Davidow's extensive research on life in the eighteenth-century Roman ghetto, its traditions, food, personalities, and dialect."

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Joie Davidow is the author of several books, including a memoir, Marked for Life; the nonfiction book Infusions of Healing; a novel, An Unofficial Marriage: A Novel about Pauline Viardot and Ivan Turgenev; and, with Esmeralda Santiago, the editor of short-story anthologies Las Mamis and Las Christmas. In her career as a journalist, Davidow was the founder and editor of two award-winning magazines-L.A. Style and Si-and a cofounder and editor of L.A. Weekly newspaper. She lives in Umbria, Italy. A lifelong bookworm, Shaina Summerville fell into audiobook narration after nearly a decade of professional theater experience in the Chicago theater circuit. She loves narrating YA fiction, cozy mysteries, and nonfiction. An academic at heart, Shaina has bachelor's degrees in musical theater and communication arts from Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin and completed a graduate certificate in aquaculture and fish health from the University of Florida. She loves being able to tie together her many skills and interests to bring both fiction and nonfiction to life. When not narrating or performing onstage, Shaina may be found hiking, taking photographs, tap dancing, or cheering on the Chicago Cubs.

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