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I Am Forbidden (2012)

by Anouk Markovits(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307984737 (ISBN13: 9780307984739)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Hogarth

review 1: Not great at writing reviews but felt compelled to say that this book had a profound effect on me. Belief, whether cultivated by an independent exploration or imposed by inherited circumstance,can have tragic consequences. Nothing new in that, but the ability to relate to the characters in this book that wanted so much to live within the cosy world of religious rules and protocols,took my breath away. People should remember that whatever they themselves believe, even when the desire to jump on that idealistic band wagon is strong it's not always possible. We judge at our peril. A brilliant book.
review 2: I really wasn't expecting that ending... not at all! Wow! Anouk has a very elegant writing style, really rich and powerful at the same time.Members of a Hassi... moredic family in Romenia need to live in torn between the religious law and their own desires. Starting around the WWII, two Hassidic orphans (Josef and Mila) are taken in by Zalman Stern and their lives start to follow different paths: after a few years, Josef goes to United States to study and Mila goes to Paris with the family, where she becomes heavilly attached to Atara, Zalman's oldest daughter. Due to the turbulence of their lives in a foreign country, the family learn that everything is changing in the world, including their own Jewish community and it is in the middle of those changes that Atara develops a certain need of discovering more than the things her family can (and will) provide to her. Mila and Atara become the opposite sides of the same coin and Anouk uses their stories to develop the cultural and social changes of the previous century.There is only one word to describe the way Anouk develops the story: heartbreaking. The books follows a narrative in which a few characters come and go whenever its necessary - this might be a little awkward in the beginning but after a while you get used to it and discover that those changes were for the best. Every little thing in the book has a deep meaning (including the pearls in the cover!) and those things were so majestically in the narrative that you become a part of the story, watching everything so closely that you can almost touch it. Great and heavy book! less

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