---
product_id: 43053204
title: "The Weight of Ink"
brand: "houghton mifflin harcourt"
price: "€ 29.71"
currency: EUR
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 8
category: "Book"
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/43053204-the-weight-of-ink
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# The Weight of Ink

**Brand:** houghton mifflin harcourt
**Price:** € 29.71
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Weight of Ink by houghton mifflin harcourt
- **How much does it cost?** € 29.71 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/43053204-the-weight-of-ink)

## Best For

- houghton mifflin harcourt enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted houghton mifflin harcourt brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![The Weight of Ink - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5100vbpF5SL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Profound, fascinating and deeply engaging, but not "light reading"
  

*by T***S on Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2017*

“The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish lives up to its title in many ways. At 560 tightly-written pages of magnificent prose, this novel can under no circumstances be called “light reading”. Indeed, the only reason I was able to complete it despite the protest of my arthritic hands and aging eyes was because it is unquestionably absolutely enthralling to a person with my specific interests.Those interests include theology and the incredible injustices which dogma-driven society has perpetrated against women, homosexuals, Jews, and others. This book touches on all these aspects, and many more. As the plot summary indicates, Helen Watt, an aging British historian and expert in Jewish studies, is invited by a former student to assist in the evaluation of some manuscripts found during the renovation of a house in a London suburb. Helen, suffering from Parkinson Disease, needs help in studying what she realizes is a treasure-trove of documents, and calls upon a colleague to recommend a post-graduate student to assist. Enter Aaron Levy, a young American secular Jew who has run into a roadblock on his own research attempting to find a “Jewish Connection” in the writings Shakespeare. Helen and Aaron find their collaboration both uneasy and deeply rewarding.Further dramatic tension is provided by the fact that Helen’s ploy of having the college (from which she is about to retire) acquire the documents for conservation and archiving immediately raises the specter of academic competitiveness. It soon becomes obvious that the papers include the writing of Ester Velasquez, the ward of the blind Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes, a Portuguese Jew. Having fled Portugal for the relative safety of Amsterdam after the Inquisition killed his parents and blinded him, Rabbi Mendes has been sent to London to try to assist the struggling Jewish community there. The existence of a female scribe writing in 17th Century London just before plague and then fire decimated the city is remarkable enough. However, as Helen and Aaron continue to delve into Ester’s writings an incredible back-story emerges. This woman was not only a scribe, but a philosopher as well, determined to connect with some of the great – and, in the opinion of most other people of that era heretical – thinkers of her time. As the story weaves back and forth between Ester’s traumas and those of Helen and Aaron as they seek to discover the reality of who this woman was and what she really represented (before being “scooped” by other investigators), great depth and richness of thought evolves.As mentioned in my opening comments, this is not a book I could recommend to someone seeking light or trivial reading. However, it is profound, fascinating and deeply engaging for anyone who is concerned with the fundamental issues Rachel Kadish so brilliantly addresses through the words and thoughts of her extraordinary characters.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Fine Literary Work, but Challenging
  

*by L***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2018*

There are long passages in this book, letters written by Ester to the philosophers of her day, in contemplation of the likely impossibility of the existence of God. At one point, Aaron Levy, the present-day scholar, wonders if he is even able to understand her missives.And this is my problem with this good book. The writing was beautiful, but dense and often cryptic; I sometimes had trouble understanding it, and many of the letters and scenes went on for too long.And yet I highlighted 27 excerpts, whether for the beauty of the writing or its resonance.On the very first page, describing Helen Watt: "Hope against reason: an opiate she'd long abandoned." What great characterization. As was the subtle yet plainspoken paragraph alerting us that Watt is very ill. The writing was so beautiful at times, I read it aloud to my husband, savoring the work of a true craftsman.The story progresses along three lines: that of Ester Velasquez, who lives in London, c. 1660; and of the modern-day scholars Watt and Levy. One theme of the book could be "how will you use your life? Will you live it fully or squander it?"-- in self-containment (Watt); the cowardice of the late-maturer (Levy); or by accepting cultural repression of women (Velasquez).As Levy learns about Velasquez having to hide her intellect, and the degree to which she suffers isolation because of her mind, his understanding grows in regard to the woman he loves, and women in general. This is a coming-of-age story. Levy is twenty five, beautiful, gifted with women, and stuck. He's unhappy and unsure of himself.Watt, gravely ill but persevering at the unlocking of the mystery of Ester, also examines her own life, with a lengthy flashback to when she was a young woman in love. Her fear of that love shaped her entire life, and it's only at the end and through her work with Levy that she achieves clarity in this regard.So, good character arcs, incredibly rich historical details, lots of good in this book, but overall, too long, opaque, and subtle for me. My apologies to the author, who must be a gifted scholar herself to have completed this work.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    beautifully written, a pleasure to read
  

*by C***. on Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2017*

This is a beautiful, complex, engrossing, and engaging novel that is more than worth the time it takes to read it. The best part of "The Weight of Ink" is that it doesn't sacrifice readability or character development for the sake of the story, which takes place in both the 1990's and the 1660's. I'm finding that a lot of recent novels that take place in different eras in history try and "mold" their narrative style so they sound like they were either written in that time period or somehow evocative of that time period, and in doing so they turn the book into one long "accent", sacrificing readability for style.Rachel Kadish did none of that- she managed to weave an engrossing story with rich, compelling characters that come to life on the page. And the fact that this is a 576 page novel about documents and correspondence between rabbis and remains more of a page turner than any recent "thriller" is not lost on me.The basic plot: Helen is an aging historian, and near the end of her academic career she's called out to the home of one of her students, after he's  unearthed a trove of historical documents during a renovation. Aaron, an American graduate student who is finding his dissertation to be a dead end, is tasked to help her.What they found- and the implications of it- astound them both. Through Kadish's skillful writing, the reader is effortlessly shifted between the worlds of both Helen and Aaron's situations in modern-day London, Israel in the 1960's, London in the 1660's and the characters that inhabit all these worlds.I cannot recommend this novel enough. It's beautifully written, a pleasure to read, and the kind of book that keeps you invested from the first page to the last.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/43053204-the-weight-of-ink](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/43053204-the-weight-of-ink)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Croatia*
*Store origin: HR*
*Last updated: 2026-03-06*