Daughters of Jerusalem [working title]

Alexandra sits in a room facing the timeless beauty of the Jerusalem hills. She is writing her family’s history, inspired by the house in which they all lived, now a residence for artists and writers. Alexandra’s family have lived in the city for over a hundred years, but there is so much she doesn’t know about them. Where is her father? Only one dim memory—a photo of a little girl presenting flowers to an elegantly dressed young man. Generations of women will reconnect and bond via the winding tales that ensue. Alexandra turns to her grandmother Eduarda, the bearer of family memories. The old woman tells her fascinating life stories, and identifies the photo—the little girl is Alexandra’s great-grandmother Victoria, the young man Prince Edward, son of Queen Victoria and the future king of England, who visited Jerusalem in 1862. Years later in London, the two will meet again, with unexpected consequences… In an extraordinary story that leads back to the Crimean War of 1857, then forward to shocking details about her parents and the tragic circumstances of her own birth, Alexandra gathers up her past. And Jerusalem, with all the political and religious conflicts that have divided this complicated city, is an inseparable part of the novel.