In this spellbinding novel, the international bestselling author of Princess brings together a striking cast of characters, revealing deep layers and varieties of love and hate seldom seen in popular fiction. Jewish Holocaust survivors Joseph & Ester Gale have lost most of their family members to the infamous gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka, yet they continue to defy death for the dream of a Jewish State. Palestinian refugees George and Mary Antoun are forced to flee their home in Haifa to raise their only child in the squalor of Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. Former S.S. officer Friedrich Kleist and his wife Eva survive Germanys bitter loss in World War II only to have the long shadow of their Nazi past return to haunt them and their beautiful daughter, Christine. By tethering the lives of these three families, all tossed into the maelstrom of wars terrors, JEAN SASSON proclaims the tenderness of great love and exposes the consuming passions of war. But in the end, the force of love overturns the claims of war and blood. JEAN SASSONs talent for delving into the deepest corners of the human condition has produced a stunning novel, and reviewers agree!
This sweeping, overwrought and overwritten saga of the modern-day Jewish exodus is the fiction debut of the bestselling author of Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. Opening in Paris during the summer of 1938 and closing in Jerusalem in June 1983, the historical melodrama traces two Jewish families, the Gales and the Steins, from their near extinction in 1939 during Hitler's invasion of Warsaw and the ensuing atrocities of the Holocaust. Young Joseph Gale and his wife, Ester Stein, are practically the only survivors, and in 1948, they travel to Palestine. A counterplot chronicles the displacement of an Arab family, the Antouns, from their home in Haifa by Jewish forces in the same year, resulting in their 34-year-long exile in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, ending with their deaths in the Israeli-orchestrated Shatila massacre during the Lebanese civil war in 1982. There is a shadowy subplot involving Friedrich Kleist, a former young Nazi SS officer who took part in the Nazi invasion of Poland. A second generation two Gale children, an Antoun son and a Kleist daughter find their fortunes tortuously interwoven as the novel proceeds to an unlikely, over-the-top conclusion, involving questions of mistaken parentage, coincidence and the revelation of wartime horrors. Overlooking artless writing, loyal Sasson fans will likely send this pulpy tapestry of war-torn families and bloodthirsty ethnic and religious ideologies straight to the bestseller list. 100,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; 20-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A sprawling novel of historical intrigue that spans the years from 1938 to 1983 in Europe and the Middle East. The families of Moses Stein, a devout Jew from Poland; of Benjamin Gale, a secular, assimilated Jew from France; Freidrich Kleist, a German SS officer; and George Antoun, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon become entwined through an amazing set of circumstances. Readers are introduced to the families in 1948. In Jerusalem a second son is born to Ester, daughter of Moses Stein, and Joseph Gale. The child is kidnapped. In Haifa, George and Mary Antoun, Palestinian refugees, learn that their family has been killed in an Israeli attack, and in East Berlin, Freidrich Kleist is haunted by a dream of his involvement in the death of Jews in Warsaw. The prologue gives readers tantalizing clues to the identity of Ester's child and clarifies the history of the four families and the ways in which World War II and the establishment of the state of Israel have affected them. How the fate of the families binds them in lasting relationships is described in an exciting narrative of suspense, intrigue, and romance. Each chapter is preceded by a clarifying historical account of the events, a helpful listing of the many individuals included in the story, and attractive black-and-white illustrations. Teens will find the plot involving and feel compassion for the characters, most of whom are unwilling and tragic victims of political extremes and human misunderstanding. The story ends on a note of hope and renewal. Jackie Gropman, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Jean's first book THE RAPE OF KUWAIT, based on her eye witness reporting on the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops, was an immediate bestseller. Shortly thereafter she became a full-time writer. Her next three books, PRINCESS, PRINCESS SULTANA'S DAUGHTERS, and PRINCESS SULTANA'S CIRCLE, became international sensations as they were the first books to bring to the western world the shocking stories about life for women in Saudi Arabia. Jean is also the author of MAYADA, DAUGHTER OF IRAQ, about the prison experiences of an Iraqi journalist praised by Saddam Hussein; LOVE IN A TORN LAND: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance which tells the story of a beautiful Kurdish woman; GROWING UP BIN LADEN: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us into Their Secret World; and FOR THE LOVE OF A SON: One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child. Her work has been featured in People, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The Sunday London Times, The Guardian, CNN, FOX, NBC, and many other news organizations.
A Note from Author Jean Sasson
Why do I care so much about the plight of women of the world? The answer is simple: because I can't help it.
I grew up in the United States, in a tiny town down South. In my daily experience, women enjoyed full freedom to do as they pleased. During those early years, it was beyond my imagining that women might be discriminated against.
But from a young age, I noticed mankind's occasional unthinking mistreatment of other animals. Such cruelty broke my heart, and I took aggressive action to aid animals in need. Mischievous boys who thought it amusing to tie a bag of rocks to a cat's tail soon learned to avoid me. I cared for a number of animals of my own, including some rather eccentric ones, such as a pet chicken named Prissy that I taught to walk on a lead. Another pet chicken, named Ducky, accompanied me like my little shadow and brought me endless joy. I had a number of cats and, when I grew older, I got my first doggie, a black cocker spaniel named, yes, Blackie! Others - Frisky, Doby, and a Peke named Goo Boo - soon followed.
As I grew older, it seemed that all the homeless dogs and cats in my little town "knew" to gather in our yard, sensing that I could not turn a single one away.
An impulse to save needy animals carried on throughout my entire life, and I was willing to pursue eccentric efforts to save a chained or otherwise mistreated animal. After I moved to Saudi Arabia, our villa in a Saudi neighborhood quickly filled with abandoned dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and even ducks!
Friends who stayed overnight in our home were often confronted with the challenge of sharing their bed with a couple of affectionate cats, of being roused in the morning by songs from caged birds, or of arranging their evening ablutions alongside a surprise in the guest bathroom: a bathtub filled with ducks!
Some people say that my heightened sensitivity is a blessing, while others stamp it a curse. I endorse the "blessing" tag and exult that I've been the joyful "mother" of 31 cats and dogs, the "foster mom" of many others until I could find an appropriate home, as well as the caretaker of too many birds to count. A few years ago a friend from the days of Saudi laughingly confided that my nickname was "The Bird Woman of Riyadh," a title unknown to me during my 12 years of living in the desert kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia, I worked as the Administrative Coordinator of Medical Affairs at The King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. Most hospital reports crossed my desk prior to being presented to my boss who was the head of the hospital. Therefore, I was privy to the details of many human tragedies. But the reports that haunted me most were the stories of women who had been brutally mistreated. And, more often than not, it seems, their injuries had been inflicted by the very men who were supposed to protect them. Many Saudi men, of course, were wholly kind to the females in their family. But when the occasional man lashed out at a wife or daughter with cruelty or brutality, the women of the family had nowhere to turn for help. The man's word was absolute law and no outside organization would dare interfere. A woman's helplesness in such a situation is heartrending and nearly unsolvable.
I saw sadness almost every day that I worked at the hospital, most of it associated with women's issues. Unfortunately, there was little I could do - for I, too, was a disenfranchised woman, in a country not my own.
But I met several Saudi women who desperately plotted for change. One was a Saudi princess, a woman the world now knows as Princess Sultana Al-Saud. Understanding her culture well, she described that nothing would crack Saudi men's determination to maintain the status quo...nothing, that is, short of worldwide indignation. For this reason, the princess was fierce in her belief that the story of Saudi women must be told. Most importantly, she wanted her own life experiences to be the story that inflamed the world.
For years we discussed this possibility, but after my book THE RAPE OF KUWAIT lent me the clout of a bestseller, we knew the time was right to expose the tragedies that afflict so many women on this earth. By then, we were both mature women who understood that discrimination against women is not limited to Saudi Arabia or to the Middle East, but is a worldwide problem, aggrieving women in Western nations, too. But first we would tell HER story.
Storytelling is powerful. A powerful book or movie can inform and inflame. That is why I think it is wonderful that so many books are now being written about the plight of women worldwide. I support all authors who make this important subject their life's work.
I am proud that PRINCESS was the first book to be written about the life of a Saudi Arabian woman, because Saudi life for females is completely unique and cannot compare with any other Middle Eastern country, or for that matter, any country in the world.
After PRINCESS, I shared other, very powerful stories. After traveling to Iraq in July 1998, I wrote about Mayada Al-Askari in MAYADA, DAUGHTER OF IRAQ. Later I shared the story of Joanna's great adventure, the story of a Kurdish woman's escape from Northern Iraq in the book LOVE IN A TORN LAND. Soon came the compelling story of Osama's wife and son, called: GROWING UP BIN LADEN. My latest account is FOR THE LOVE OF A SON: ONE AFGHAN WOMAN'S QUEST FOR HER STOLEN CHILD, a story that will make you weep and make you laugh. Such exuberance is typical of so many lives, lives laced with good and with bad. And who would deny the importance of any story that details the life of a woman who challenges an unjust system? Such stories are criticized only by those who care nothing about the status of women.
I hope that you learn about women of the world, and that you, too, work to ensure that every human being - male or female - has the right to lead a life of dignity.
Esters Child Jean Sasson in this book has surpassed in excellence all her previous books; so if the Sultana Trilogy was an International best seller, this book should be a MEGA best seller. I, as an Arab sided with the Jews in their plight throughout the book And wept for the Palestinians. Jean Sasson was able to turn our feelings the way she did for one simple reason , she is a humanitarian , a wonderful person that looks beyond hatred and pores her true feelings and emotions deep
into the stream of humanity. Her ability to do this was coupled with an excellent ability to interweave fiction with true history . I wish more Americans, Arabs and Jews thought the way Ms. Sasson thinks. We would have less venom, hatred and wars in this world that is practically going into pieces at this very moment. The book is so real , that you live with the characters ( Arabs and Jews )as if they were made of flesh and blood. During my University years in the American university in Beirut during the 70's, I had many friends and classmates that lives in areas close to Shatilla camp. Some had connections with Palestinian Resistance Groups, as a result of which I know Shatilla very well. The book took me back 20 years to those narrow streets , reviving a memory I never thought would be revived . The description lacked one thing only , the odors of the place, only because it was written on paper. I give the book a million stars , and not just 5 .
M. N. Al-Askari
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsAn author with knowledge & experience in the Middle East, October 20, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Ester's Child (Hardcover)
I know that Jean Sasson writes books that makes people think. I read all of her previous books after a friend forced me to read PRINCESS, which is one of my all time favorite reads.
Importantly, Ms. Sasson is on the cutting edge of so many issues that are now affecting all Americans. Her PRINCESS books were one of the first that told the plight of women in restrictive Muslim cultures. Now everyone in the media is repeating what Ms. Sasson said years ago about women who are forced to veil and unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of making one's own decisions.
Now with her latest book, ESTER'S CHILD, this writer gives the reader a look into the world of Arab/Jewish hatred that has been building for a hundred years. Sadly, the pot is now boiling over, hurting so many innocent people, including Americans who are guilty of nothing but going off to work in a effort to support their young families.
I was pleasantly surprised at how Ms. Sasson handled the telling of this very compelling story. Anytime in the past I have read a book about the Arab/Jewish conflict, the writer took one side or another. If a writer in sympathy with the Arabs took pen in hand, every Jew ended being thoroughly unlikable. On the flip side, if a writer wrote in sympathy with the Jewish side of this issue, they made every Arab a throat cutting fanatic. That sort of writing does nothing but hurt the cause of peace.
Now, Ms. Sasson takes the side of humanity, weaving a beautiful story featuring a Jewish family and an Arab family. I learned so many details of the daily lives of both groups--I learned that the world is not good or bad, but somewhere inbetween, and that most people in that region are simply trying to make the best of a terrible situation.
I get the feeling that Ms. Sasson is trying to tell us what we all should know--that most people are good--that few people are evil--and that we must keep fanatics from determining our ideas.
Admittedly, the book ended too soon for me. Now I want to know what happens to the characters and I only hope that Ms. Sasson sees fit to write a sequel to this very compelling book.
I recommend this book to every American--you will learn so much in the most enjoyable manner. The world needs more writers that do not use their writing ability to make us hate--Ms. Sasson makes us see both sides of an issue and I admire her for this.
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Jean Sasson's debut historical novel, Ester's Child, is truly "a searing drama you'll never forget". Her three years of research paid off. It is a must read for all and is quite timely as conflict continues to brew in the Holy Land.
Sasson bought a new understanding to an ancient and complex situation. By using a German, an Arab and a Jewish family she cleverly presented three sides. Her characters are multi-dimensional and very convincing. I found myself wanting to meet them. They are all greatly missed. They continue to be with me as I read the newspaper about the conflict. Her novel put faces on all of the people we see in the news and read about in the newspaper.
Sasson wrote with sensitivity and compassion. It is clear that she has an obvious love for the people in her novel.
With a college degree in history I seek out historical fiction. Ester's Child is a new all time favorite read. I believed it was impossible for her to surpass the Princess trilogy, but she did (and I still strongly recommend them, also).
With great anticipation I look forward to Sasson's next novel!
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