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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Ragen, N. 2010 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When life is at its best, the unimaginable can shatter everything you think you know...
Abigail Samuels has no reason to feel anything but joy on the morning her life falls apart. The epitome of the successful Jewish American woman, she is married to a well-known and respected accountant and is in the middle of planning her daughter Kayla's wedding. Kayla, too, wakes up that morning with the world in the palm of her hand. Having lived the charmed life of a well-loved child from a happy family, she is bright, pretty, a Harvard law student who has never really questioned the path she found herself on.
With a shocking suddenness, all that is smashed to pieces in ways they could never have dreamed. When a heartbroken Kayla runs away to a desert commune run by a charismatic mystic, Abigail rushes to save her, only to find that there is nothing more whole than a broken heart.
Author Notes
Naomi Ragen is the author of novels including The Sacrifice of Tamar , Sotah , The Covenant , and The Saturday Wife . Her books are international bestsellers, and her weekly email columns on life in the Middle East are read by thousands of subscribers worldwide. Ragen attended Brooklyn College and earned her master's in English from Hebrew University. An American, she has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. She was recently voted one of the three most popular authors in Israel.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Ragen (The Saturday Wife) brings a bitter intensity to this story of betrayal and a Jewish family brought to its knees by a financial scam to fund overseas terrorism. Boston accountant Adam Samuels gets ensnared in political and religious turmoil after his arrest for allegedly transferring more than $150 million to terror groups, charges that upend the lives of his wife, Abigail, and youngest daughter, Kayla, a Harvard law school student engaged to be married. The scandal bares the hidden cracks in this not-so-perfect family, and soon a panicked Kayla runs for the desert hills of Israel, where a charismatic leader opens her heart, and Abigail, chasing after, has her own epiphany. The arcs of self-discovery contrasts sharply with the darker portrait of ambition and hypocrisy that haunts the Samuels family, and though it doesn't always jibe-Abigail's admirable strength turns unbelievably into mush as she embraces her inner hippie-the unexpected turns Ragen puts on this family's path to healing and happiness are a pleasant surprise. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
An upper-middle-class Jewish family is thrown into turmoil when a father is accused of abetting terrorism.Things couldn't be more idyllic for the Samuels clan of Cambridge, Mass. Abigail is exulting in the pleasurable planning of a gala engagement party for daughter Kayla and future son-in-law Seth, two Harvard Law students with bright futures. But why is the caterer giving her the fish-eye? The news has hit the Internet: Suddenly the whole world knows that Abigail's husband, Adam, a prominent CPA, has just been led, in handcuffs, from his Boston office by the FBI. The charge arose from the fact that Adam had steered some high-profile clients, including a former ghetto dweller turned celebrity entrepreneur, toward a hedge fund that, unbeknownst to Adam despite due diligence, financed terrorist operations. Seth, a controlling sort who pressures Kayla into straightening her hair and wearing pinstripes in order to better her chances with law-firm recruiters, insists that she distance herself from her father to avoid tainting her career prospects. Adam's formerly close friends and even his rabbi shun him. On bail, awaiting trial and facing the loss of his hard-won reputation and prosperity, Adam grows increasingly despondent and rebuffs Abigail's efforts to comfort him. Kayla impulsively hops a plane to Israel, and winds up on an archeological dig near the Dead Sea. There, amid a group of free spirits called the Talmidim, she lives off the land and studies with a charismatic guru, Rav Natan. She's drawn to Daniel, an Israeli surgeon whose family was killed by a suicide bomber. Ironically, Daniel, with his contacts in Israeli army intelligence, may be the Samuels family's salvation. Adam, alarmed by Kayla's defection from the mainstream, sends both Abigail and Seth after her. Both will then experience epiphanies of their own.A page-turner illustrating the horrifying consequences of becoming embroiled in the American legal system, slowed by far too many weighty passages of authorial comment about the sad state of morals today.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Abigail Samuels has arrived. Her husband has a successful accounting firm, and her daughter, Kayla, a Harvard law student, is engaged to a fellow student. They are pillars of the Orthodox Jewish community in a Boston suburb until their world suddenly falls apart. When a story saying that her husband is funding terrorists appears on the Internet, Abigail's friends vanish. Her daughter runs off to a desert commune in Israel to study with a charismatic Kabbalist, and Abigail rushes to rescue her. While in Israel, both women start to question their previous life paths and begin journeys of self-discovery. Ragen's novel mixes current events, Jewish values, a little romance, and a touch of feminism. It will appeal to those interested in contemporary Jewish issues and to fans of women's fiction.--Bibel, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist