From a Sealed Room
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Ink, "a tale of war and peace that moves us from Jerusalem to New York and back again" (San Francisco Chronicle).
In this affecting, perceptive novel, Rachel Kadish reflects on the ghosts of the past, the tensions of war, and the difficult bonds of family. When Maya enrolls at Hebrew University in Jerusalem shortly after the Gulf War, she hopes to leave New York and a fraught relationship with her mother behind her. In Israel, she gets to know her older cousin Tami, a housewife whose home has a room sealed against the war's Scud missile attacks. Like Maya, Tami feels distanced from the people closest to her—her mother, her husband, her only son. But it will ultimately be Maya's visits with Shifra, an elderly recluse and Holocaust survivor who lives in the apartment below her, that give Maya the courage to confront her problems and break free of the burdens of her past.
Praise for Rachel Kadish and From a Sealed Room
"A gifted writer, astonishingly adept at nuance, narration, and the politics of passion."—Toni Morrison
"Brilliantly braids history, religion, family, and eros. I was moved . . . and very impressed."—Russel Banks
"An intense, ambitious story that explores the chasms between the truth and falsehood, past and present."—The New York Times Book Review
"What makes this book so rich and historically resonant is the skill and boldness with which Kadish weaves the intersecting stories of three women representing three generations."—Chicago Tribune
"A poignant and a surprisingly powerful tale."—The Boston Globe
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Three women, each feeling hopelessly bound by a painful past, touch one anothers' lives in this wise, perceptive first novel. Leaving behind a troubled relationship with her mother in America, young Maya enrolls at Hebrew University in tense Jerusalem shortly after the Gulf War. There she spends time with her older cousin Tami, an Israeli whose distressed relationships with her husband and grown son have followed a difficult girlhood with an emotionally distant mother of her own. As Maya tells the story of her love affair with an abusive Israeli veteran haunted by memories of his tour of duty on the West Bank, Kadish interpolates lyrical, psalmlike passages spoken by the inner voice of Shifra, an aged recluse and concentration camp survivor living in the apartment below Maya's. Shifra comes to think of the American girl as a sort of Messiah who will save her from the tormenting memories of her tragic past--an apotheosis made all the more ironic by the glowing letters home that Maya writes to cover up the violent, complex relationship in which she is trapped. In the end, redemption for these characters lies in having the courage to exit the "sealed rooms" of their fears and memories. Only Shifra falls beneath the burden of her past, but not before her brief, intense visits with Maya ensure that her strong voice survives in the girl. Kadish draws her characters with fine compassion, psychological penetration and attention to detail. Editor, Faith Sale; agent, Gail Hochman; first serial to Bomb.
