Narrated by Baruch, a grandson of one of the founding fathers of the village, this lyrical novel transcends time and place by touching on issues of universal relevance, showcasing the skill of a master storyteller who never fails to entertain.

    Naomi Ragen's first novel has been called "one of the too most important Jewish books." Abraham Ha-Levi is a wealthy American businessman and the last male survivor of an important Orthodox Jewish family. He decides it's time he finally honored his religious and cultural inheritance and so forces his 18-year old daughter--the beautiful and intelligent Batsheva--into an arranged marriage. Her new husband is a devout Torah scholar who lives in Jerusalem. Batsheva finds herself plunged into a new life and a strange land, among people who follow their religious laws to the letter. Then she realizes that her husband's piety is merely a mask for his cruelty. A magnificent book that builds up momentum compellingly.

    Mortimer finds that everything his father does embarrasses him until the day he enters a baking contest in Mortimer's class.

    Fleeing the Nazis, a Jewis resistance fighter, Eliza Wolf, entrusts her newborn baby to the care of a local peasant woman.

    Sami Michael was born in Baghdad in 1926, fled to Iran during WWII, and eventually made his way to Israel. His first novel, Equal and More Equal was published to critical acclaim. Refuge was his second major work, written originally in Hebrew but, he adds, “with the emotional baggage of the Third World.”

    English and Hebrew on facing pages.

    

    A classic introduction to the life-world of Israel, unmissable f or all studying the Hebrew Scriptures.