Sotah: A Novel

Product Description

Beautiful, fragile Dina Reich, a young woman in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox haredi enclave, stands accused of the community’s most unforgivable sin: adultery. Raised with her sisters to be an obedient daughter and a dutiful wife, Dina secretly yearned for the knowledge, romance, and excitement that she knew her circumscribed life would never satisfy. When her first romance is tragically thwarted, she willingly enters into an arranged marriage with a loving but painfully quiet man. Dina’s deeply repressed passions become impossible to ignore, finding a dangerous outlet in a sudden and intense obsession with a married man, with terrible consequences. Exiled to New York City, Dina meets Joan, a modern secular woman who challenges all she knows of the world and herself. Set against the exotic backdrop of Jerusalem’s glistening white stones and ancient rituals, Sotah is a contemporary story of the struggle to reconcile tradition with freedom, and faith with love.

From Publishers Weekly

In Ragen’s latest look at the women of Israel’s Orthodox communities (after
Jephte’s Daughter), a rabbi’s daughters deal with love and the fallout of adultery. The story begins as three sisters reach marrying age with limited options due to family finances and the inherited disgrace of an adulterous ancestor. The eldest at 20, Dvorah dutifully accepts the hand of a man who is short and overweight and slurps his soup. Meanwhile, independent-minded youngest sister Chaya Leah meets secretly with a Hasid (improper marriage material) about to enter the Israeli army. The saddest of the three, middle child Dina, must give up her first love and marry instead a laconic woodcarver. Eventually, unfulfilled emotional needs and a lecherous neighbor drive her to sin; after the Morals Patrol catches up with her, she’s exiled to New York. Detailed descriptions of weddings and sexual politics offer much insight, showing both the strength and limits of the Orthodox code of conduct. The pleasures of Ragen’s book arise not so much from her characters or plot but from thought-provoking comparisons of Israeli Orthodox and American Jewish life.
(Sept.)
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Review

“The pleasures of Ragen’s book arise… from thought-provoking comparisons of Israeli Orthodox and American Jewish life.” ―Publishers Weekly“Richness of faith and family lovingly evoked, with the other side–religious and cultural intolerance–equally given its due.” ―Kirkus“Sotah is a passionately honest novel. Gripping from start to finish.” ―Maisie Mosco

About the Author

Naomi Ragen is an award-winning novelist, journalist and playwright. Her first book,
Jephte’s Daughter, was listed among the one-hundred most important Jewish books of all time. Her bestselling novels include
Sotah,
The Covenant,
The Sisters Weiss, and
Devil in Jerusalem. An outspoken advocate for women’s rights, and an active combatant against anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda through her website, she has lived in Jerusalem since 1971.
An Observant Wife is her thirteenth novel.