Book of Rachel

Rachel, a widow of the Bene Israel, India's old Jewish community, lives by herself in a seaside village near Bombay. Her sons and daughters, like nearly every Jewish family she knew, have settled in Israel; she holds the key of the prayer house, cleans it, keeps the Sabbath and sings Hebrew prayers in Marathi. Cooking keeps her going as well, and every chapter starts with a recipe whose ingredients mean something to her people. When builders try to buy up the old prayer house and the plot around it, Rachel resists, to the astonishment of its trustees and her neighbours, and turns to a young lawyer, Judah, for help, while her youngest daughter Zephra, who has lived on a kibbutz, brings the family in Israel into the story.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

197 pages in the original

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

India

First published

2006 by Viking

Author's age

61 when first published

ISBN

9780670058662 (Viking, India)

9780143444534 (Penguin Books India, India)

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