The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

When I finished this book I was totally overwhelmed by what I had just finished reading. I think it is one of the best books I've read this year.

This is a book about women, about their strengh and hability to keep their dignity and traditions in a period where men held most of the power. It also shows the importance of family bond's and story telling as a way to pass history and culture from one generation to the other.

This is also a book of historical fiction based on a biblical episode mentionated in Genesis 34. I couldn't resist doing some research to find out more about Dinah. She really is just a footnote in the Bible but Diamant gives her and the women of her tribe a wonderful dimention. Not only that but she makes the settings - Mesopotamia, Canaan, Egypt - come alive. We can almost smell, feel and see the places that she describes. We will never know the true story but this is a fabulous account of what might have been.


An A read.