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by Eve Harris
London, 2008. Chani Kaufman is a nineteen-year-old woman, betrothed to Baruch Levy, a young man whom she has seen only four times before their wedding day. The novel begins with Chani standing "like a pillar of salt," wearing a wedding dress that has been passed between members of her family and has the yellowed underarms and rows of alteration stitches to prove it. All of the cups of cold coffee and small talk with men referred to Chani's parents have led up to this moment. But the happiness Chani and Baruch feel is more than counterbalanced by their anxiety: about the realities of married life; about whether they will be able to have fewer children than Chani's mother, who has eight daughters; and, most frighteningly, about the unknown, unspeakable secrets of the wedding night.
As the book moves back to tell the story of Chani and Baruch's unusual courtship, it throws into focus a very different couple: Rabbi Chaim Zilberman and his wife, Rebbetzin Rivka Zilberman. As Chani and Baruch prepare for a shared lifetime, Chaim and Rivka struggle to keep their marriage alive - and all four, together with the rest of the community, face difficult decisions about the place of faith and family life in the contemporary world.
"Starred Review. Harris's debut is as deeply melodic and exciting as her depiction of Shabbat in Jerusalem, and will linger after the last page." - Publishers Weekly
"The book introduces readers to a little-known way of life and asks us to consider the role of faith and family in today's world." - Booklist
"A readable, compassionate portrait of roles, especially women's, in a Haredi community that only occasionally strays into stereotype." - Kirkus Reviews
Harris writes of this closed world with knowledge and understanding, and highly observant, slightly acidic humour. Deservedly longlisted for the Man Booker." - The Times (UK)
"Engages from the very first page, slipping the reader deep into the orthodox Jewish community, beyond the rituals and prayers, the constraints and the hair-covering wigs, into the secrets and emotions beneath, illuminating the story of Chani's journey from schoolgirl to bride and revealing the lives of others around her besides. This novel is beautifully done and highly recommended." - Daily Mail (UK)
"One of those books you cannot put down...Some of the women (the story is mostly told from a female perspective), could have been created by Jane Austen or Mrs Gaskell. . . . Eve Harris looks but does not judge... an optimistic, compassionate story." - Sunday Express (UK)
"Compassionate and witty... The Marrying Of Chani Kaufman is about more than an innocent girl in a rigorously controlled community hoping for a soul mate while being paraded before husband material (Jane Austen has done that already). At the heart of the book is the theme of identity and the glue that fastens us to communities, be they religious, racial or social.... [It has] the emotional and thematic complexity needed to raise the story to a Booker contender." - The Independent (UK)
"The serious subject at its core – the semi-arranged marriage of two young Haredi Jews – is belied by the warmth of the writing. There are demons here, but they do not terrify... Humour abounds, but so do pathos and anger... Harris's eye for suburban social mores is wickedly acute, as is her evident relish in describing both the sensual life and its absence... Has the potential to be that rare thing – a crowd-pleaser about Orthodox Judaism." - Guardian (UK)
"Harris evokes the community's insular nature, she also suggests the sense of comfort and belonging that it confers, offering a sympathetic window on a way of life little glimpsed in contemporary fiction." - Financial Times (UK)
"Confidently done, a romantic comedy at ease with its own lightness. Its setting, northwest London's ultra-orthodox Jewish community, is small and devoutly separate, and reading about such enclosure is pleasantly consuming... Harris is humorous and clement throughout with her characters." - Sunday Times (UK)
"Depict[s] the claustrophobic anxieties of a young heroine locked within a powerful family hinterland.... Readers seeking genuine Jewish characters have no need to search for the latent beneath the manifest here... [The Marrying of Chani Kaufman] has received the British literary establishment's seal of approval. It deserves it." - Jewish Chronicle
This information about The Marrying of Chani Kaufman was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eve Harris was born to Israeli-Polish parents in West London. She taught for twelve years at schools in London, as well as in Tel Aviv. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman was inspired by her final year of teaching at an all girls' ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in North West London.
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