The next Stroud Green book club meeting will take place at 8pm Thurs 4th Sept at The Noble.
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
By Eve Harris
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013
£8.99
Nineteen-year-old Chani lives in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community of North West London. She has never had physical contact with a man, but is bound to marry a stranger. The rabbi's wife teaches her what it means to be a Jewish wife, but Rivka has her own questions to answer. Soon buried secrets, fear, and sexual desire bubble to the surface; not to mention what happens on the wedding night....
350 pages
Harris evokes the community s insular nature, she also suggests the sense of comfort and belonging that it confers, offering a sympathetic window on a way of life little glimpsed in contemporary fiction. --David Evans, Financial Times
In a narrative that weaves the viewpoints of the bride and groom, it is the third story which provides the emotional and thematic complexity needed to raise the story to a Booker contender. It is the story of Rivka, a rebbetzin, whose ambitious husband, Chaim, marries the couple. --Danuta Kean, The Independent
Humour abounds, but so do pathos and anger. Harris s eye for suburban social mores is wickedly acute, as is her evident relish in describing both the sensual life and its absence.' --Catherine Taylor, The Guardian
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