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The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz (Hardcover)

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4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Michelle Cameron deftly gives dramatic voice to the Jewish women of the Middle Ages. The Fruit of Her Hands is suspenseful, soulful, and plain wonderful. It takes us to the heights of scholarship and imagination." -- Ruchama King, author of Seven Blessings

"Michelle Cameron delves into one of the darkest eras of the Jewish past and brings forth a deeply compassionate and thoroughly gripping story of a woman whose fate is inextricably bound up with that of her people. Meticulously researched yet richly imaginative, it will keep you spellbound until the last, enthralling page." -- Eva Etzioni-Halevy, author of The Triumph of Deborah

"The Fruit of Her Hands lets the reader experience first-hand the tragic end of hundreds of years of Jewish presence in medieval France through the voice of its passionate and learned heroine. This novel shows us that women, too, can bear witness to history." -- Maggie Anton, author of Rashi's Daughters

"With a powerful immediacy, Cameron's meticulously researched historical is told by Shira, an anomalous 13th-century woman raised (and educated) like a son by her widowed father...Readers will drink in the historical detail."-- Publishers Weekly

"Cameron's clean, clear prose clings to the reader's memory long after it's been read, as does her heroine. This novel will appeal to everyone who craves an accurate, arresting novel."-- Romantic Times

"Readers who appreciated Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughters trilogy will be entertained."-- Library Journal

"A beautifully written saga, [...] With strong main characters, a myriad of important secondary players, The Fruit of Her Hands is a gripping, fascinating, and informative narrative of a tragic, yet important historical period."-- Romance Reviews Today

"The Fruit of Her Hands is equally rich as history and fiction. ...[A] book so rich with wonderful characters, vivid settings, and an absolutely lush and wonderful depiction of the strengths of the medieval Jewish home and community. Cameron is an author I certainly hope to hear more from. This is a first-rate choice for Jewish book clubs."-- San Diego Jewish World


Product Description

Crafting a richly textured, absorbing novel based on the life of her ancestor, renowned thirteenth-century Jewish scholar Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg, Michelle Cameron paints a page-turning and deeply personal portrait of Judaism in medieval France and Germany. Imagined through the eyes of Rabbi Meir's wife, Shira, this opulent drama reveals a devout but independent woman who struggles to preserve her religious traditions while remaining true to herself as she and her family witness the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Raised by her widowed rabbi father and a Christian nursemaid in Normandy, Shira is a free-spirited, inquisitive girl whose love of learning shocks the community. But in Meir ben Baruch, a brilliant scholar, she finds her soul mate and a window on the world of Talmudic scholarship that fascinates her.

Married to Meir in Paris, Shira blossoms as a wife and mother, savoring the intellectual and social challenges that come with being the wife of a prominent scholar. After every copy of the Talmud in Paris is confiscated and burned, Shira and her family seek refuge in Germany. Yet even there they experience bloody pogroms and intensifying hatred. As Shira weathers heartbreak and works to find a middle ground between two warring religions, she shows her children and grandchildren how to embrace the joys of life, both secular and religious.

A multigenerational novel that captures a hitherto little-known part of history with deep emotion and riveting authenticity -- and includes an illuminating author's note and a Hebrew glossary -- The Fruit of Her Hands is a powerful novel about the enduring spirit of the Jewish people.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket (September 8, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1439118221
  • ISBN-13: 978-1439118221
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #339,879 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Michelle Cameron
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling glimpse into a little-known part of Jewish history..., September 7, 2009
Michelle Cameron's THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS tells the surprisingly fascinating story of Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, Germany, the greatest Talmudic scholar of the 13th century, as seen through the eyes of his wife and soulmate, Shira.

The recorded history of Rabbi Meir, who is Cameron's ancestor, says nothing about his family other than he had a son, Suesskind, and several unnamed daughters. But Cameron reasoned that such a remarkable man would have had an equally remarkable wife, and so she invents Shira, the only daughter of a widowed French rabbi with a thirst for learning and a mind of her own.

The novel deftly weaves Meir and Shira into some of the darkest chapters of medieval Jewish history: The Paris disputation (trial) and mass burning of the Talmud in 1240-42, the blood libel of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln in 1255, and King Rudolph I's decision in 1286 to enslave the Jews of Germany, which forced Meir to flee to Palestine, only to be captured en route and imprisoned for ransom.

Meir and Shira also become entangled, politically and personally, with the villainous Nicholas Donin, a radical Jewish scholar who is rejected as a suitor for Shira's hand, excommunicated by the Chief Rabbi of Paris, and eventually becomes a Franciscan monk. Donin takes his revenge by convincing Pope Gregory IX to condemn the Talmud for blasphemy and King Louis IX of France to confiscate and burn 12,000 copies in Paris.

Cameron stays true to history and does not inflate Shira's role unduly. She is no proto-feminist or free-thinking firebrand, but rather an obedient daughter, a loving wife, and a restrained (if highly intelligent) observer of events whose greatest concern is keeping her family safe. Her greatest enemy after Nicholas Donin is her hypercritical mother-in-law.

Even so, Meir and Shira's struggle to survive and even thrive in an increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, the wealth of detail about Jewish life 700 years ago, the illuminating snippets of Talmudic wisdom and Jewish poetry, and Cameron's clean and lyrical writing make THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS a marvelous read and a remarkable achievement for a first-time novelist.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enlightening story, September 14, 2009
Sometimes, when we start researching our family tree, we discover an ancestor who makes us proud. When author, Michelle Cameron, found she descended from Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, she decided to learn as much as she could about him, and memorialize him in a novel.

Through the eyes of his fictional wife, Shira, we revisit 13th century Europe, at the rise of anti-Semitism. During this time period, the Talmud was burned, and growing mistrust of the Jewish people caused their cruel persecution and imprisonment. But Shira and her family are strong in their faith and community, and refuse to allow their fears to control them. In the midst of this unrest, we learn what a great and important man Rabbi Meir ben Baruch is in his lifetime.

Blending the history of her ancestor and his fictional family with Jewish faith and custom, The Fruit of Her Hands is a moving story that spans several generations. When we first meet Shira, she's a young girl. She marries, has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren by the time the story concludes.

Fear of a group of people causes humanity to act in ways that are unfathomable to rational minds. Yet we see behavior like this time and time again. But exeriencing how the Jews were persecuted, first-hand through Shira's thoughts and memories, reminds us not to judge based on appearances. There's a lesson for all of us in this remarkable story.

Reviewer: Alice Berger
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good but not quite great, October 17, 2009
By Sheryl Katz (Chatsworth, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This was a tough book to review. I felt that it fell between three and four stars. The prose is very readable, and the story moves along, but I only felt emotionally involved with the characters at all at the very end.

The best historical fiction takes the reader back in time and gives a feel for the experience of living against the backdrop of historical events. This novel does the opposite, it uses the story of the novel as a framework for telling about the history. Too much "telling" of the history is done rather than "showing."

The main character is a woman who is supposed to be a strong woman, a bit of a rebel for her time, but not too much. She is a fictionalized character who is used primarily to tell the story of the men around her. As a character, she was too superficially developed.

The positive is that this is a great historical period to write about, the point where anti-semitism and the inquisition led to driving the Jews out of Western Europe. This is a seriously underexplored time period and setting for historical fiction. The telling about these events gave the book a freshness and interest it otherwise would not have had. I liked the book but I wanted to like it more. I definitely recommend it if one is at all interested in either Jewish history or the medieval period. However, I was also disappointed that it fell short of what I thought it could be.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely trip through time.
A fascinating trip to another time and land. Meticulously researched. This story of a woman and her family set in the 13th century held my interest from start to finish... Read more
Published 12 hours ago by Oona

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening
I love history and I discovered a few years ago that I apparently have a penchant for historical fiction. Read more
Published 3 days ago by K. Grant

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down!
As a fan of historical fiction, I was looking forward to reading this book when I first read the synopsis. I was not disappointed. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Randi Mitchell

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling tale of a Jewish life in the 13th century
This novel does a wonderful job of bringing back in history to the life of a unique woman who lived in the 13th century. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Stephanie Manley

4.0 out of 5 stars A LABOR OF LOVE THAT BEARS FRUIT
For readers craving great historical fiction, or a realistic romance novel, or a book about religion's place in history, THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS will more than satisfy your... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Bookworm

4.0 out of 5 stars Life of a Jewish woman in 12th century
Michelle Cameron's debut novel "The Fruit of Her Hands" is pure delight. It is a historical fiction book whose protagonists were real members of Jewish community in 12th century... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacked Depth
The title of this novel is misleading. While it is told from the perspective of Shira, it is really about her husband Meir ben Barucha, Cameron's ancestor. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Julie Merilatt

3.0 out of 5 stars Frighteningly real at first but ultimately not compelling
The opening chapters of this book on the life of Jews foreshadows the greater horrors of the coming Inquisition, and Shira's father comes back from a harrowing taste of the evils... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Joanna Daneman

5.0 out of 5 stars 13th century historical novel
One of the better historical novels I have read. Very little has been written from a woman's perspective on 13th century life and this was a can not put down read.
Published 24 days ago by J. Codos

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and researched story of Judaism in 13th century Europe
The History of the Jews in Europe has been a troubled one and one that is often not known of by many people. Read more
Published 24 days ago by liat2768

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