Set in seventeenth-century Poland, The Slave tells the story of Jacob, a young Talmudic scholar sold into slavery after the Chmielnicki massacres - and who falls in love with his master's daughter, Wanda. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can't live without her, and the two escape together to a...

Set in seventeenth-century Poland, The Slave tells the story of Jacob, a young Talmudic scholar sold into slavery after the Chmielnicki massacres - and who falls in love with his master's daughter, Wanda. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can't live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community. Racked by his consciousness of sin in taking a wife who is not Jewish, and by the difficulties of concealing her identity, Jacob stands firm as the violence of the era threatens to destroy the ill-fated couple.