The Family Orchard - Hardcover

Eve, Nomi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375410767 ISBN 13: 9780375410765

Publisher: Knopf, 2000

Synopsis

A magical, multigenerational saga encompassing two hundred years in the life of an unforgettable family--a book of love stories, ill-fated and blessed, sensuous as a dream, unfolding in a time and a place where fable is more potent than fact, where the imagination is more powerful than any truth, where the line between myth and history has all but dissolved: Jerusalem, from the early years of the nineteenth century to the present.

They left Eastern Europe for Israel and emerged, six generations later, in America: Esther, the family matriarch, who was lured by the smell of baking bread into the baker's arms; her granddaughter, Avra the thief, who stole a cow's tongue and married a man with strong fists and very fast feet; Miriam, a seamstress who sewed spells into her cloths and whose mesmerizing beauty inadvertently transformed Kovna's House of Study into a container of pure carnal frustration; the twins Zohar and Moshe, who ran across the walls of the Old City as boys, and  as men faced a tragedy that would haunt their family for generations to come; Eliezer, Zohar's son, who once tried to conjure a golem in his father's garden; and Eliezer's American-born daughter, who would one day take his stories and cast a spell of her own.  

Nomi Eve's debut novel is a rich tapestry of Jewish life and humor and yearning, woven from timeless themes: the evolution of family, the setting down of roots, the sorrow of immigrants and the joy of pioneers, the secrets that bind families together and the legends that sustain them. In language as uniquely vibrant as the characters who inhabit it, The Family Orchard captures the intoxications of love, tradition, and history, and the ineluctable forces that shape them. A deliciously engrossing novel, at once epic and intimate, from a storyteller of beguiling power and wisdom.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Absolutely wonderful in just about every single way... Immediately seductive."
--Newsday

"Enchanting, highly readable... The Family Orchard captures two centuries of Israel's modern history through the dreams, the sacrifices, the bravery of one remarkable Jewish family. It's a marvelous debut."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Ambitious... A meaty, old-fashioned multi-generational family saga."
--The Washington Post Book World

"[The Family Orchard is] told in the bold colors of an Isaac Bashevis Singer fable... [Eve] is a storyteller of uncommon energy and poise."
--The New York Times

"Wonderfully accomplished... in a league with other multigenerational epics like One Hundred Years of Solitude."
--Talk

"Ripe with vivid images... An earthy, unorthodox view of family history, one imbued with love and warmth and humor."
--Detroit Free Press

"Blends traditional Jewish storytelling with the ingredients of postmodernism: magical realism, multiple authorial voices, a playful conflation of fiction ad nonfiction, even woodcut illustrations and eclectic design."
--The Boston Globe

About the Author:

Nomi Eve is thirty-two years old. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Family Orchard is her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375410767
• ISBN 13: 9780375410765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336