(Fiction, 208 pp. Hebrew, 2021; English Translation, 2023)
Rachele is a spunky and curious schoolgirl living with her assimilated extended family, between Catholic and Jewish cultures, in northern Italy. When she is cast as the Madonna in the school play, questions of identity, bad blood between Jews and their neighbors, and family allegiance rattle Rachele’s family and intrigue the girl. She is left largely on her own while her Jewish father and non-Jewish mother struggle with his cancer diagnosis and treatment. Rachele’s surreptitious foray into a church adds to her provocative questions. While her father is alarmed but distracted, her doting paternal grandmother encourages her expanding awareness.
Discussion Questions from publisher New Vessel Press
Review by Allegra Goodman, Jewish Review of Books, Spring 2024
Review by Isadora Kianovsky, Jewish Book Council, November 23, 2023
Review by David Herman, The Jewish Chronicle, July 8, 2023
Reviews collection by NetGalley
Review by Shay K. Azoulay, The New York Times, April 8, 2023
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Review by Liam Hoare, The Tel Aviv Review of Books, Winter 2022
Review by Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Pagine Ebraiche International Edition, June 20, 2022
Interview with Nir Baram one month before A. B. Yehoshua’s death, The Jewish Quarterly, November 2022
A.B. Yehoshua Obituary by Julia Pascal, The Guardian, June 15, 2022
A.B. Yehoshua Obituary by Mitch Ginsburg, The Times of Israel, June 14, 2022
A.B. Yehoshua Obituary by Robert Alter, The Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2022
