Shalom India Housing Society

About the Book

Set in a fictional society in Ahmadabad formed after the communal riots of 2002, Shalom India housing society weaves together the lives of its residents through a series of stories that capture the dilemmas of the last bene Israel Jews in India. How are their relations with other communities changing? Ought they to leave? Where can they go? Do they belong in India, or in Israel? Will they feel at home in Israel?

Drawing readers into the world of a microscopic community, the novel traces misunderstandings between parents and children, lovers and neighbours, in stories that are by turns hilarious, bitter-sweet and heartwarming. The spirit of the affectionate, sometimes eccentric, Prophet Elijah to whom the characters turn in their trouble suffuses the novel. Esther David probes the shifting layers of religious and national identity-from the way people dream of homelands imagined or left behind- in prose that is understand but always engaging.

About the Author

Esther David is the author of the walled city, book of Esther, by the Sabarmati, book of Rachel and my father’s zoo. She has edited an anthology of earthquake stories and co-authored a book, India’s Jewish heritage: ritual, art and life cycle. She is published in French and her work is included in the library of modern Jewish literature, Syracuse university press, New York. She belongs to a bene Israel Jewish family of Ahmadabad and grew up in a zoo created by her father.

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