The Girl from Foreign
A Memoir
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4.1 • 16 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A search for shipwrecked ancestors, forgotten histories, and a sense of home
Fascinating and intimate , The Girl from Foreign is one woman's search for ancient family secrets that leads to an adventure in far-off lands. Sadia Shepard, the daughter of a white Protestant from Colorado and a Muslim from Pakistan, was shocked to discover that her grandmother was a descendant of the Bene Israel, a tiny Jewish community shipwrecked in India two thousand years ago. After traveling to India to put the pieces of her family's past together, her quest for identity unlocks a myriad of profound religious and cultural revelations that Shepard gracefully weaves into this touching, eye-opening memoir.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Who is Rachel Jacobs?" the 13-year-old asks her Muslim grandmother Rahat Siddiqi; "that," Nana tells her, "was my name before I was married." Thus does a grandmother's stunning reply and a granddaughter's promise "to learn about her ancestors" set Shepard's three voyages of discovery in motion: her grandmother's history; the story of the Bene Israel (one of the lost tribes of Israel that, having sailed from Israel two millennia ago, crashed on the Konkan coast in India; and her own self-discovery (her mother was Muslim, her father Christian, and her grand mother Jewish). Shepard balances all three journeys with dexterity as she spends her Fulbright year, with an old hand-drawn map and her grandmother's family tree, unraveling the mysteries of Nana's past while visiting and photographing the grand and minuscule synagogues in Bombay and on the Konkan Coast. A filmmaker, Shepard writes with a lively sense of pacing (her year proceeds chronologically, interspersed with well-placed flashbacks) and a keen sense of character (getting to know her friend, escort and fellow filmmaker Rekhev as gradually as she does, or capturing the Muslim baker who makes the "only authentic challah in Bombay" in a few strokes). Shepard's story is entertaining and instructive, inquiring and visionary.
Customer Reviews
The Girl From Foreign
Not a page-turner, but definitely a thought provoking and reassuring book that helps one to know and understand that Jews and Muslims are not natural enemies and in fact are not really that different from each other. It must be possible to understand our similarities and to appreciate our differences. In this true story a young girl searches for more information about her grandmother's history and in so doing, examines her own religious choices. I also loved her descriptions of life in India. Her characters came to life as I read about them. I think this is a must read for anyone wanting to know more about the Bene Israel tribe of Jewish ancestors.