Overview
The setting of the Pulichever saga shifts to the capital of the Hapsburg Emperors during the year of 5428 (1668) in Avner Gold's Envoy from Vienna, the seventh volume in the continuing Ruach Ami Series.
As the story unfolds, the Jewish community of Vienna prepares to celebrate the wedding of Mendele Pulichever when it suddenly finds itself embroiled in a serious crises that threatens its very existence. The dismayed Jews of Vienna are confronted by a formidable array of adversaries, including Empress Margareta Theresa, her mother Queen Maria Anna of Spain, the Emperor's Jesuit confessor and a fanatical Spanish duke. After a tense confrontation in the imperial palace of Emperor Leopold l of Austria, the Jews of Vienna attempt to enlist the support of some of the most powerful princes in Europe. In the course of the story, the fate of the Jews becomes entangled in a struggle between the Hapsburg Emperor and King Louis XlV of France and with the ambitions of the Elector of Brandenburg, a young German prince who sits in his capital city of Berlin and plans the formation of a powerful new German state.
Envoy from Vienna is filled with drama and high adventure, especially during the desperate and perilous journey which brings the envoy to the doorsteps of princes, queens, generals and great financiers, always just a step ahead of the bloodthirsty mercenaries hired by the enemies of the Jews.