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Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 SHEPARD | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In this beautifully crafted memoir, a young Muslim-Christian woman travels to an insular Jewish community in India to unlock her familyas secret history Sadia Shepard grew up in a happily complicated family just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, her father a white Protestant from Colorado and her mother a Muslim from Pakistan. It was always a joyful home, full of stories and storytellers, where the cultures and religions of both her parents were celebrated and cherished with equal enthusiasm throughout her childhood. But Sadiaas cultural legacy grew more complex when she discovered that there was one story she had never been told. Her beloved maternal grandmother was not the Muslim woman, Rahat Quraeshi, Sadia had always known her to be, but in fact was born Rachel Jacobs, a descendant of the Bene Israel, a tiny Jewish community whose members believe they are one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, shipwrecked in India two thousand years ago. What was complicated had become downright confusing; Sadia was now intimately linked to the faiths of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and the customs of Pakistan, India, and the United States. At her grandmotheras deathbed, Sadia promised to begin the process of filling in the missing pieces of her familyas fractured mosaic, and with the help of a Fulbright scholarship, she set off for Bombay. Sadiaas search to connect with the Bene Israel community led her to discover more about Indiaas tumultuous history and the haunting legacy of Partition, and she was forced to examine what it means to lose oneas place, oneas homelands, and oneas history. Weaving together humorous tales from her crosscultural childhood with an evocative account of asmall Jewish community in transition, The Girl from Foreign is Sadiaas poetic and touching attempt to reconcile with her past and help determine her futureawhen offered the choice, will she be able to decide between the religious and cultural identities that have shaped her? It is the stunningly written and unforgettably evocative story of family secrets, forgotten roots, forbidden love, and, above all, eye-opening self-discovery. Sadia
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Starred Review. Who is Rachel Jacobs? the 13-year-old asks her Muslim grandmother Rahat Siddiqi; that, Nana tells her, was my name before I was married. Thus does a grandmother's stunning reply and a granddaughter's promise to learn about her ancestors set Shepard's three voyages of discovery in motion: her grandmother's history; the story of the Bene Israel (one of the lost tribes of Israel that, having sailed from Israel two millennia ago, crashed on the Konkan coast in India; and her own self-discovery (her mother was Muslim, her father Christian, and her grand mother Jewish). Shepard balances all three journeys with dexterity as she spends her Fulbright year, with an old hand-drawn map and her grandmother's family tree, unraveling the mysteries of Nana's past while visiting and photographing the grand and minuscule synagogues in Bombay and on the Konkan Coast. A filmmaker, Shepard writes with a lively sense of pacing (her year proceeds chronologically, interspersed with well-placed flashbacks) and a keen sense of character (getting to know her friend, escort and fellow filmmaker Rekhev as gradually as she does, or capturing the Muslim baker who makes the only authentic challah in Bombay in a few strokes). Shepard's story is entertaining and instructive, inquiring and visionary. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Documentary filmmaker Shepard searches for her history deep in the heart of India's tiny Jewish community. Growing up in Boston, the author knew that her mother was a Muslim from Pakistan, her father a Christian from Colorado. When she was 13, in 1988, she learned that her grandmother had been born in Bombay, a member of the Bene Israel community, which believes it is one of the lost tribes of Israel. Shortly before Nana's death in 2000, Shepard promised she would go to India and study her ancestors. Her debut memoir begins 15 months later as she arrived in muggy Bombay to fulfill that promise. The ensuing trip was full of meetings with colorful characters and pensive reflections on identity, community and family. Shepard's journey through India took place as the world was rocked by the 9/11 attacks, which provided a recurring backdrop to her travels. In the nonlinear narrative of Part One, "Storytelling," the author dips back in time to recall how her parents met, to talk about her childhood and to examine her grandmother's influence on the family. Then she settles into "Fieldwork," a more conventional, chronological documentation of her journey. It throws up a number of intriguing revelations. One member of the Bene Israel community talked openly about the dwindling job opportunities for young Jews in Bombay, partly rectified in recent times by the booming call-center industry. Others seized on Shepard's ambivalence about religion and advised her to study a faith, preferably Judaism, and pick a partner from that denomination to marry. The author also traveled to Pakistan, where her grandmother and millions of other Indian Muslims moved after Partition in 1948. At Nana's old flat in Karachi, Shepard discovered a sheaf of her letters; these, together with the stories she told her granddaughter about her past, constitute the book's most interesting parts. A readable account that gives a vivid taste of life in present-day India as well as a poignant glimpse of complicated family relations. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Shepard's mother, Samina, a Muslim Pakistani, and father, Richard, a Christian American, gave her the freedom to embrace both religions and cultures during her childhood outside of Boston. Shepard's third parent was her adored maternal grandmother, Rahat Siddiqi, called Nana. At age 13, Shepard was shocked to discover that Nana was once Rachel Jacobs, a member of the Bene Israel, a small Jewish community near the Konkan coast of India. Years later, Shepard, now a filmmaker, promises Nana that she will return to India to document her history and that of the Bene Israel, whose descendants believe they are a lost tribe of Israel. With the aid of a Fulbright, she arrives in Bombay shortly after the events of 9/11. Shepard entwines narrative flashbacks of her family's history with a chronicle of her time abroad, as she interacts with a colorful array of individuals, seeks out the Bene Israel's synagogues and diminishing communities, and reflects upon her sense of self and home, given her complex heritage. Shepard's engaging and pensive memoir of discovery offers a moving portrait of her grandmother within an inquisitive, complex journey into urgent questions of religious, cultural, and personal identity.--Strauss, Leah Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The daughter of a white Protestant father and a Muslim Pakistani mother, Shepard discovered as an adult that her maternal grandmother came from India's tiny Jewish community, Bene Israel. With a national tour by request. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.