Yesha in a New Book (But Why They All Walking Away?)

While we're on books, here's another I found:-





Joan Leegant's Wherever You Go:

Yona Stern is in Jerusalem to make amends with her sister, a stoic ideologue and mother of five who has dedicated herself to the radical West Bank settlement cause. Mark Greenglass, a former drug dealer saved by religion, has lost his passion and wonders if he’s done with God. Enter Aaron Blinder, an unstable college drop-out who finds a home on the violent fringe of Israeli society. The story of three Americans caught in the vortex of an unpredictable extremism

And more:

...her timely and brave first novel plunges its cast of vivid characters into the violent world of Israel's extreme right-wing fringe with rare insight and mesmerizing detail that equals, and even surpasses, the best of this tradition.

Wherever You Go is tautly structured around the alternating and distinct perspectives of Yona Stern, who travels from New York hoping to reconcile with her estranged sister who lives in one of the more radicalized West Bank settlements; Mark Greenglass, a successful Talmud teacher suddenly seized by an agonizing loss of faith; and Aaron Blinder, a shiftless youth burdened with a famous father whose novels featuring sentimentalized Holocaust victims and vengeful heroes inspire Aaron's horrific choices.

Through her uneasy gaze, we experience the feverishly messianic community of Givat Baruch, led by zealous patriarchs committed to the ``immutable truth'' that their land was given by ``divine edict 4,000 years before,'' whose wives and mothers (including Yona's sister) are willing to sacrifice their children should God demand that.

...Notwithstanding Leegant's suspenseful and emotionally wrenching indictment of the ruinous seduction of politico-religious fanaticism, her pitch-perfect renderings of individuals torn between earthly and heavenly Jerusalems are the true source of the novel's lingering power. Author of an acclaimed short-story collection, An Hour in Paradise, Leegant is a masterful weaver whose deft storytelling brings her diverse cast of conflicted characters and fraught themes into a powerful emotional and spiritual whole. Wherever You Go is a lively, full novel by an elegant, ironic writer who handles the topics of terror and messianic violence as agilely as she does love and redemption.

And try this book, My Before and After Life by Risa Miller.

Honey and Susan, two sisters in Boston, are shocked to learn that their elderly father has embraced Orthodox Judaism while on vacation in the Holy Land. His daughters fly to Israel to convince him to return, but when they get there they find it hard to communicate their concerns as he tries to educate them on the finer points of religious life. Honey feels abandoned and angry. But the anger turns into an emotion she can’t quite identify or accept during the course of the trip. And while she is still enraged, it becomes increasingly difficult for Honey to figure out exactly why she has condemned her father’s choice.

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