Daughters of Jerusalem
by Charlotte Mendelson
On This Page
Description
'Brilliant . . . exhilarating . . . Exciting and memorably written, this is one of those rare reads that has you galloping to the end, but feeling bereft at having to say goodbye so soon' Independent Behind a crumbling facade of seeming normality, secrets begin to stir within the Lux family home. Jean Lux, constrained academic wife and guilty mother, is waiting for excitement - and it will come from an unexpected source. Meanwhile Eve, her intelligent elder daughter, luxuriates in wounded show more jealousy, until her loathing for her only sister verges on the murderous. Into this climate of static repression and bitterness enters Raymond Snow, the deadly rival of Jean's husband, who begins to show interest in the vulnerable Eve. Meanwhile, Jean's best friend, Helena, has something she is yearning to tell: a confession that may alter everyone's life forever. Beautifully written and very funny, Daughters of Jerusalem is a gripping tale of hidden love and hate, of the desire to belong and the need for escape. Daughters of Jerusalem won both the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. 'Brilliant and witty . . . Mendelson's second bewitchingly erotic and darkly dramatic novel confirms her as a stylish, perceptive chronicler of the heart's hidden desires' Daily Mail show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A fabulous literary novel about an academically-minded family just about to enter freefall and implode entirely. I loved it. The characters are fabulous, and I was gripped by both adults and children, and their intricate stories.
The writing is that perfect balance between poetry and tension, and I couldn't put it down. All this plus the joys and agonies of Oxford University life. Bliss indeed. And the ending is wonderfully and believably redemptive. Thoroughly recommended.
The writing is that perfect balance between poetry and tension, and I couldn't put it down. All this plus the joys and agonies of Oxford University life. Bliss indeed. And the ending is wonderfully and believably redemptive. Thoroughly recommended.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Books by Jewish Authors
68 works; 5 members
Author Information
9+ Works 1,089 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Victor Lux; Jean Lux; Eve Lux; Phoebe Lux; Professor Helena Potter; Raymond Snow
- Important places
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Epigraph
- King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusa... (show all)lem.
The Song of Songs, 3:10 - Dedication
- For Joannna
and for Max, Kati and Rachel
with love - First words
- A children's tea party in the land that time forgot. One small pink-cheeked boy, white old-man's braces over the top of his padded navy jacket, is laboriously spreading cream cheese on wholemeal bread.
- Quotations
- When did he learn all this? How does he, a man barely able to tie his own shoelaces, remember so much in such detail? He can act out for you Athenian maritime manoeuvres, and does so in cinema queues and busy public pathways.... (show all) He can quote Heraclitus and Edward Lear, scan anything, parse anything, destroy any argument. He can describe the death of every Merovingian or the etymology of almost any English word, and there is not even the dimmest possibility that Eve will ever know a faction of these things.
She steps around Helena and looks into her face through a shower of tiny diamonds. "I don't know what to say," she says sadly. She opens her empty hands.
"Neither do I," says Helena.
She walks calmly across the main room, past darkened crocodiles, a ghostly albatross, the barely-visible thighs of mastodons.
The next day begins bright and cold: a perfect Oxford morning. Gilded cupolas, decomposing angels, the delicate vertebrae of pinnacles are acid-etched on a background of fourteenth-century blue, although there is still mist i... (show all)n the hollows of the meadows.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 136
- Popularity
- 239,326
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.58)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
