
The Genizah at the House of Shepher, by Tamar Yellin. Published 2008 by St. Martin's. Literary Fiction.
I read this advance copy courtesy of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.
Genizah, a Hebrew word, is defined as a storeroom or attic, usually in a synagogue, for worn or unusable prayerbooks
or bibles, which, since they contain the name of God, cannot be thrown
away but must rather be buried according to Jewish ritual. That was the
first question I had when I picked up The Genizah at the House of Shepher,
and attics and storerooms and worn old books are at the crux of this
slow, literary and very moving story about a woman, a book, and a
mystery.
Shulamit Shepher
is a researcher and scholar in the field of the Hebrew Bible; she lives
in England and travels to Jerusalem to unravel a family controversy
that threatens to boil over. Years ago, her great-grandfather, Shalom Shepher,
had undertaken to find the ten lost tribes of Israel, and when he
returned he brought with him a codex of the Hebrew Bible, found
somewhere on his journeys. The book remains hidden for years; when it's
discovered in the attic of the family home, the family decides to give
it, albeit temporarily and for purposes of further study, to a research
institute. Shulamit
comes to Israel to see the codex and use her professional skills to
assess it. She finds herself in the middle of family rivalries and
secrets, and meets an intriguing stranger also interested in the codex.
The narrative alternates between Shulamit
in the present tense and the story of her family in the past tense,
starting with her great-grandfather's first marriage, leading right
through her father's failed love affair and her brother's defection from
the family. Author Tamar Yellin tells the story slowly, and ponderously; midrashic
stories about Moses are interwoven as allegories about knowledge and
learning, about what should be, and should not be, gleaned from books.
This codex could be a very special book, an early- or perhaps even
original- version of the Hebrew Bible, of which there are so many
variants and versions, and as such has the potential to be of
cataclysmic importance spiritually, historically, academically and even
commercially. The family is fraught with tension, anger and anticipation
over its fate, and all kinds of lingering, competing motives and
intentions surface up.
The Genizah at the House of Shepher
bears a resemblance to another book recently published about a female
scholar and the fate of a precious Jewish book- Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book (which I reviewed earlier this year), but The Genizah is quite different. People of the Book was a page-turner; action-packed and busy with movement and twists and turns, it could be made into a movie. The Genizah is altogether a slower book, more thoughtful, and more literary in style. I also found Shulamit to be a more likable character than Brooks's prickly heroine Hanna. If People of the Book could be made into a movie, The Genizah could become a classic. As the winner of last year's Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, given by the Jewish Book Council, it's off to a good start.
I loved reading The Genizah at the House of Shepher. I thought Yellin hit all the right notes in terms of pacing, character and outcome. The tentative romance between Shulamit
and the mysterious Gideon was handled beautifully and the story of her
family, and especially her father, was fascinating and bittersweet. I
could have finished the book days before I did, but I slowed down for
the concluding few chapters, because I wanted to make it last. Isn't it
nice to feel that way about a book?
Rating: BUY
FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.
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