TWOsday ~ daughters of two families

Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved ~ by Maggie Anton, 2007, fiction (medieval France), 384 pages

This is the first novel in a trilogy set in eleventh-century France about the lives and loves of three daughters of Rashi, the great Talmud scholar.  (According to  Wikipedia, the Talmud is, after the Torah or Jewish Bible, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and Jewish theology.  It consists of the Oral Torah and its commentaries.)

In 1068, Salomon ben Isaac returns home to Troyes, France, to take over the family winemaking business and embark on a path that will indelibly influence the Jewish world, writing the first Talmud commentary, and secretly teaching Talmud to his daughters.

Joheved, the eldest of his three girls, finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but, knowing the risk, she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden.  When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and being true to her love of the Talmud.

Rashi's Daughters, Book 2: Miriam ~ by Maggie Anton, 2007, historical fiction (medieval France), 496 pages

The engrossing historical series of three sisters living in eleventh-century Troyes, France, continues with the tale of Miriam, the lively and daring middle child of Salomon ben Isaac, the great Talmudic authority.  Having no sons, he teaches his daughters the intricacies of Mishnah and Gemara in an era when educating women in Jewish scholarship was unheard of.  His middle daughter, Miriam, is determined to bring new life safely into the Troyes Jewish community and becomes a midwife.  As devoted as she is to her chosen path, she cannot foresee the ways in which she will be tested and how heavily she will need to rely on her faith.

Rashi's Daughters, Book 3: Rachel ~ by Maggie Anton, 2009, historical fiction (medieval France), 425 pages

Rachel is the youngest and most beautiful daughter of medieval Jewish scholar Salomon ben Isaac, or "Rashi."  Her father's favorite and adored by her new husband, Eliezer, Rachel's life looks to be one of peaceful scholarship, laughter, and love.  But events beyond her control will soon threaten everything she holds dear.  Marauders of the First Crusade massacre nearly the entire Jewish popula-tion of Germany, and her beloved father suffers a stroke.  Eliezer wants their family to move to the safety of Spain, but Rachel is determined to stay in France and help her family save the Troyes yeshiva, the only remnant of the great centers of Jewish learning in Europe.  Rachel is a remarkable Jewish woman of dignity, passion, and strength.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter ~ by Kim Edwards, 2005, fiction, 9/10

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins.  His son, born first, is perfectly healthy; his daughter has Down's Syndrome.  Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever.  He asks his nurse to take the infant to an institution and never to reveal the secret, then tells his wife their daughter was stillborn.  Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the baby at the institution and disappears into another city to raise the child herself.  What happens when secrets are revealed?

This book was among several I got for the Crown Center library after a neighbor died.  I'm excited about adding it to our collection here because I really enjoyed it when I read this book back in 2007.  (See my post about it HERE, where I rated this book 9/10, an excellent book.)