Sacred

At first sight, Rachel loved Nathan, the husband destined for her. Joyfully she embraced her destiny as a pious woman in Mea Shearim, the traditionalist quarter of Jerusalem where she had grown up.

But over the years, a quiet tragedy takes shape: the couple have no children. And Hasidic law grants the husband, after ten years, the right to repudiate a barren wife.

How Rachel accepts the verdict in silence — even as she knows she is not the one at fault — is what the author of Qumran tells us in this intimate, stripped-bare novel. A heartbreaking and hypnotic exploration of love, faith, and the feminine condition, Sacred is the literary counterpart to Amos Gitaï's internationally acclaimed film Kadosh, for which Eliette Abécassis co-wrote the screenplay.