Henna House : a novel

Title:

Author:

Eve, Nomi, 1968- author.

Personal Author:

Eve, Nomi, 1968- author.

ISBN:

9781476740270

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

ix, 305 pages : illustration ; 24 cm

Abstract:

In mid-twentieth century Yemen, Adela Damari's parents struggle to find her a spousal prospect after passage of the Orphan's Decree that states that all orphaned Jewish children are to be adopted into the Muslim community.

Subject Term:

Jews -- Yemen -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Yemen -- History -- Fiction.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION EVE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

An evocative and stirring novel about a young woman living in the fascinating and rarely portrayed community of Yemenite Jews of the mid-twentieth century, from the acclaimed author of The Family Orchard .

In the tradition of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent , Henna House is the enthralling story of a woman, her family, their community, and the rituals that bind them.

Nomi Eve's vivid saga begins in Yemen in 1920, when Adela Damari's parents desperately seek a future husband for their young daughter. After passage of the Orphan's Decree, any unbetrothed Jewish child left orphaned will be instantly adopted by the local Muslim community. With her parents' health failing, and no spousal prospects in sight, Adela's situation looks dire until her uncle arrives from a faraway city, bringing with him a cousin and aunt who introduce Adela to the powerful rituals of henna tattooing. Suddenly, Adela's eyes are opened to the world, and she begins to understand what it means to love another and one's heritage. She is imperiled, however, when her parents die and a prolonged drought threatens their long-established way of life. She and her extended family flee to the city of Aden where Adela encounters old loves, discovers her true calling, and is ultimately betrayed by the people and customs she once held dear.

Henna House is an intimate family portrait and a panorama of history. From the traditions of the Yemenite Jews, to the far-ranging devastation of the Holocaust, to the birth of the State of Israel, Eve offers an unforgettable coming-of-age story and a textured chronicle of a fascinating period in the twentieth century.

Henna House is a rich, spirited, and sensuous tale of love, loss, betrayal, forgiveness, and the dyes that adorn the skin and pierce the heart.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Eve (The Family Orchard, 2000) re-creates the exotic, unfamiliar world of Yemens complex Jewish community from the 1920s through its wholesale exodus to Israel in 1949-50 through one young womans eyes.The Damari family lives in Qaraah, a small Northern Yemen village, where their loving but sickly father owns a leather shop. In 1923, the local enforcer of the Orphans Decreean actual law that allowed Muslims to forcibly remove and adopt fatherless Jewish childrenshows particular interest in 5-year-old Adela Damari. Given her fathers precarious health, Adela grows up under a cloud of fear. The only way to avoid adoption is to become betrothed, a common-enough event for children in her culture. Unfortunately, Adelas fiances keep dying, one of several bits of semimagical realism in the novel. Finally, thanks to her tough-minded mothers trickery, Adela finds herself engaged at age 8 to her first cousin Asaf, recently arrived with his spice-merchant father from India. Their childhood romance progresses until Asaf must leave Qaraah with his father. Not yet in puberty, Adela pines for him, but her life changes dramatically in 1930 when another uncle moves to Qaraah with his wife, Rahel, a healer and gifted henna dyerwho knew henna was important in Eastern Jewish culture?and their daughter, Hani. Despite her tradition-bound mothers disapproval and distrust, Adela is immediately drawn to her sophisticated, imaginative and warmhearted relatives. Hani, who teaches her to read, becomes Adelas most trusted friend. Rahel teaches her the art of henna. But happiness shatters in 1933 when drought and illness strike. Adela, now a young woman of 15, flees with Hanis family to British-controlled Aden. Asaf reappears in their lives the next year. Suddenly the novel switches gears: Leisurely, slightly mystical, bittersweet reminiscence gives way to rushed melodrama as betrayal and sexuality mix under the long shadow of World War II.Eve is a natural storyteller; too bad the paint-by-numbers ending undermines her riveting portrait of the lost culture of Yemeni Jews. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.