Author: Loretta Goldberg, New York City Brooch
Reviewer: Laura Jo Brunson, ocksonville Branch
An Elizabethan spy novel may sound like a dusty historical tale, but Loretta Goldberg’s “The Reversible Mask”
is anything but. In this adventure, a conflicted anti-hero draws the
reader into the political and religious turbulence of the 16th century.
Sir Edward I.atham is a conservative Catholic serving the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Caught between devotion and duty,
he feels compelled to choose between “hell or self-exile:’ His heart is “cleaved clean in two; a conflict that
defines the path he navigates through a world of duplicity, dangers, and divided loyalties. It’s a lively journey in which he interacts with prominent historical figures of his day, including Queen Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; King Philip II; and spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham.
Goldberg’s prose is rich with sensory detail and emotional insight. In one moving passage, Latham recalls his late mother: “The flat portrait in the hall, the stone effigy on her tomb, its chiseled features mimicking the portrait, had nothing to do with the presence he vaguely remembered: a calm immanence floating toward him in a
miasma of lilac-moss perfume, followed by a long embrace; The novel’s gravitas is balanced with humor when insulted by a longtime friend, Latham responds by calling the man a “smelly goat with diarrhea of the mouth:’
As the queen’s double agent, Latham faces the constant threat of “manacles, the rack, drawing and quartering;
He assumes various false identities while wrestling with profound moral questions: Can deception ever be
righteous? How does God view man’s dilemma between faith and service?
Goldberg’s portrait of Latham is timeless. His struggle to reconcile personal belief with obligation resonates in a world still negotiating truth, power, and identity “The Reversible Mask” is more than a historical novel — it’s a vivid exploration of conscience under pressure, wrapped in espionage, wit, and richly imagined narrative based in history.
Made Global Publishing, 2018, $20.72 ISBN: 8494853953
At the New York Publice Library Riverside Branch Saturday October 25.
Loretta in Renaissance dress at her Author Talk/Slide Show
