Eliette Abécassis‘s latest novel, Sépharade, deals with what it means to be a young Sephardi woman in contemporary France.
Unlike her previous novels, this one is partly autobiographical. Esther Vital, a young Moroccan Jew who was born in Strasbourg, decides to marry Charles Tolédano – who is also of Moroccan Jewish descent – against her parents’ will
On the eve of the wedding, Esther discovers that the two families were linked in the past and that her union is doomed. She tries to understand what is happening to her and her investigation focuses on different characters in the novel. Through this quest for origins, Eliette Abécassis explores the history of Moroccan Jews with passion and erudition.
While telling the story of Esther Vidal, Eliette Abécassis also explores, with warmth, humor, and passion, the universal dilemma uniting the quest for individual identity with the desire for tradition. Through self-exploration Esther tries to make sense of her multiple identities. Jewish, Sephardi, French, and Alsatian; she feels traditional and modern. She is a loving daughter but wants to break free from her family.
Throughout the novel, Esther’s quest for a personal identity within a strong tradition strongly resonates with the reader’s own questioning.
You have me wondering what part of her story is autobiographical.
Apparently her marriage failed and this failure inspired part of the novel.
Oh my goodness – this is so pertinent to me at the moment – I am feeling very mixed in my multiple identities. Jewish, English, Scottish step-family, country, town, community, family… Unfortunately, some of these have the word ‘versus’ between them at the moment. Trying to resolve those issues as much as I can!
I wonder, is the book available in English (or perhaps I could cope with the French…).
Hope you manage to reconcile all those (sometimes conflicting) identities.
What an excellent review of what seems to be a thought-provoking book.
I too wonder if the book is in English.
It isn’t in English, yet. However some of her books seem to have been translated so this might be the case with this one soon.