Lilah
About this ebook
In 397 BC, in Susa, the opulent capital of the Persian empire, where the Jews are living in exile, young Lilah is destined for a happy life: she is due to marry Antinoes, a great Persian warrior well known at the king's court.But her beloved brother Ezra, with whom she has been close since childhood, is opposed to this marriage with a foreigner.If Lilah insists, she will have to renounce Ezra, and that is something she cannot do, for she senses that he has been chosen by God to lead the exiled Jews to Jerusalem and, after centuries of displacement, revive the laws of Moses: laws which promote justice and give human life a meaning.
Abandoning the promise of a golden future, Lilah urges her brother to leave for Jerusalem and gives him new hope that a return to the Promised Land is possible. But Ezra, blinded by faith, orders the rejection of all foreign wives. At the risk of losing the one person she still has left in her life, Lilah opposes her brother's fanaticism, thereby ensuring the survival of the women and children condemned to leave the city. But her opposition comes at great personal cost . . .
Lilah concludes Marek Halter's trilogy about Biblical heroines. Sarah, Abraham's barren wife, brought her personal destiny to bear in the creation of a new religion. Zipporah, Moses wife, fought against racism and exclusion. By speaking out against religious extremism, of which women are the first victims, Lilah proves herself a champion of freedom.
About the author
Marek Halter was born in Poland, the son of a printer and a Yiddish poet. Narrowly escaping the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, he and his parents spent time in Russia and Uzbekistan before emigrating to France. Once in Paris, he studied pantomime alongside Marcel Marceau before embarking on a career as a painter. In the 1970s, he founded the International Committee for a Negotiated Peace Agreement in the Middle East and played a crucial role in the organization of the first official meetings between the Palestinians and Israelis; a role he continues to this day.
Marek Halter speaks ten languages, and is fluent in French, English, German, Russian and Yiddish. He is the author of several internationally acclaimed novels, and is a regular contributor to Die Welt and La Republica. In France, Sarah, Zipporah and most recently Lilah have all been Top Ten Bestsellers.
