The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem
This Israeli bestseller is a multi-generational saga of Jerusalem, extending from the early 20th century when the Turks ruled Palestine, through the years of the British Mandate and the establishment of the State of Israel, to the early 1970s. It is the story of the Ermoza family, respected Sephardic Jews who own a delicatessen in the Jerusalem market. The narrator is Gabriela, the wild, rebellious daughter of Luna, known as “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.” Gabriela gradually reveals the family secrets and lies, but mainly the inner strengths that family members have to summon in order to overcome the ups and downs of life along the way.
A curse seems to hang over the Ermoza family, for the men know great love but have to renounce it and marry women that they do not love. Rafael, Gabriela’s great-grandfather, fell in love with a mysterious, blue-eyed Ashkenazi girl—shameful!—but was prevailed on to marry frigid Merkeda who did not attract him at all. His handsome, clever son Gabriel is forced to marry Rosa, an ugly and illiterate orphan, and Rosa’s daughter Luna, courted by all the young men in Jerusalem, picks David who cannot forget his love for a girl that he met in Italy during World War II.
A colorful, rich and enjoyable novel in which Jerusalem and its historic events during the last century play a leading role.
- Languages
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English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
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Italian
Rome, Sonzogno/RCS, 2015 -
Turkish
Istanbul, Koton, 2015 -
German
Berlin, Aufbau, 2016; pback, 2017 -
English
New York, St. Martin's Press, 2016 -
Russian
Moscow, Knizhniki, 2022 -
French
Paris, Charlston/Ledoc, forthcoming -
Romanian
Bucarest, Trei, forthcoming -
Polish
Krakow, Znak, forthcoming -
Lithuanian
Vilnius, Sofoklis, forthcoming -
Hungarian
Budapest, Kossuth, forthcoming -
Spanish
Madrid, Maeva, forthcoming
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| Title | The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem |
|---|---|
| Writer's Last Name | Yishai-Levi |
| Writer's First Name | Sarit |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher (Hebrew) | Modan |
| No. Pages | 448pp. |
| Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) | Malkat Ha-Yofi Shel Yerushalayim |
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“ Beautiful, sweeping…an enchanting, moving book…The characters stayed with me, as if they were still living in Jerusalem. ”
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“ Passion and the grand sweep of history permeate this dazzling you-cannot-put-it-down novel about four generations of astonishing women--and the men in their family who just might be cursed by love. So rich and vibrant, that every page seems to virtually breathe.”
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“Fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez will find much to love in “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.” The narrative is lush and rife with scandalous secrets of a passionately opinionated family that might find it easier to free themselves from the clutches of war, than from the Ermoza curse inflicted upon them.”
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“Exquisitely rich in history and detail… Poignant and intriguing book.”