Tamara Walks on Water

by Shifra Horn

A beautifully written, sensual and evocative book, in the tradition of Amy Tan and Isabelle Allende, rich in magic realism and folklore. 'To understand the end you have to look for the beginning'. As... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074993414X
• ISBN13: 9780749934149
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Piatkus Books
• Length: 352 Pages

Customer Reviews

Beautiful masterpiece of modern Israeli literature

The book begins in Israel in 1900 with the birth of twins (only of whom the girl Nechama survives) to Simcha, a refugee from pogroms in Russia, blinded and maimed by a terrible pogrom in Russia. Nechama, ill treated by her mother, takes off with the scion of an ancient Jerusalem Sephardi family and dies while giving birth to the narrator, Tamara. Tamara in this colourful, beautiful, poignant and eventful masterpiece of Israeli literature describes growing up with a cast of interesting characters and from when she is little her constant companion is Yosef, a son of an Arab prostitute fathered by Tamara's grandfather Fishke and adopted by the latter's grandparents. Set against the British occupation of Israel between the World wArs and the Arab pogroms against the Jews such as a vivid description of the Jaffa pogroms of 1921 in which hundreds of Jews where slaughtered by Arab mobs to the chilling cries of "Itbach al Yahud" and "Allah Akbar". During the turmoil of her own childhood and youth Tamara must piece together the hidden secrets of her family. A beautiful and dramatic portrayal of Israel in the first half of the 20th century.

fascinating book

Tamara Walks on Water was fascinating from start to finish. The author tells a personal tale of a girl and her family and also of the many forces that created the country of Israel with all its conflictual interests. The religious meetings of Judiasm Islam and Christianity become so clear and poignant and we can experience this though Tamara. A work of art like tapestry- where the personal and the meta meet. This realistic and mystic journey stays with me in my thoughts.