Title:
NIGHT IN JERUSALEM
Author: Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy
Publisher: PKZ Inc.
Pages: 246
Genre: Historical Romance
Author: Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy
Publisher: PKZ Inc.
Pages: 246
Genre: Historical Romance
A bewitching love
story that is also an extraordinary portrait of Jerusalem, its faith, spirituality, identity, and
kaleidoscope of clashing beliefs, Night in Jerusalem is a novel of mystery, beauty, historical
insight, and sexual passion.
David Bennett is
invited to Jerusalem in 1967 by his
cousin who, to the alarm of his aristocratic British family, has embraced
Judaism. He introduces David to his mentor, Reb Eli, a revered sage in the
orthodox community. Despite his resistance to religious teaching, David becomes
enthralled by the rabbi’s wisdom and compassionate presence. When David
discloses a sexual problem, Reb Eli unwittingly sets off a chain of events that
transforms his life and the life of the mysterious prostitute, Tamar, who, in a
reprise of an ancient biblical story, leads both men to an astonishing
realization. As passions rise, the Six Day War erupts, reshaping the lives of
everyone caught up in it.
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David lay awake thinking about Anat. He was intimidated by
her sexuality, but also fascinated by her free spirit and daunting intelligence.
He had never met anyone like her. He wondered if Jonathan and the others knew
she preferred women lovers, and why she had confided in him. He became anxious,
thinking perhaps she sensed he had sexual issues and was someone she could
easily manipulate.
Earlier, out on the roof, he had asked her why she preferred
women. She had answered simply, “For the same reasons you do,” then adding, “I
find women more interesting intellectually, as well as sexually.”
Her directness was equal parts frightening and exciting. He
wanted to know her better. Perhaps, with her, he could get over his sexual
problem. The truth was, he desired her as much as he found her intimidating.
Guest Post:
Where I get ideas for
writing fiction
I’ve always wondered what brings people into a room together or onto a
street at just that time, and where their journeys are taking them. This can
give rise to many stories. Sometimes, one truly captures my imagination.
For example, the love story in Night In Jerusalem came to me on a
movie set. We were filming on a blazingly hot day, dressed as lightly as
possible. A young Hasidic woman in long black clothes and a wig kept coming out
to look at us from her balcony. We spent most of the afternoon shooting there,
and she kept reappearing. I realized she was attracted to one of the crew
members who had unbuttoned the top of his shirt, exposing his chest. I sensed
how strongly she yearned for contact. The gap between us could have been
crossed in a few paces, yet we were centuries apart. I imagined what it would
be like to be her, what courage it would take for her to break free, how she
might do it. Decades later, I wrote her story in Night In Jerusalem.
I set the book in Israel at the time of the Six Day War, which I
experienced firsthand. I remember vividly huddling in shelters with other
women, listening to Arab radio news reports proclaiming victory while we
contemplated how we would end it for ourselves. It turned out, of course, that
the war went the other way. We were to live! Winston Churchill wrote that there
is nothing as exhilarating as when someone shoots at you and misses. Emerging
from that shelter sure was exhilarating! It also brought up questions that have
been with me ever since - why does it take such courage to truly love, how
impossible it seems to bring peace to the world, and, of course, how “God works
in mysterious ways.” The characters in Night
In Jerusalem, and their responses to the challenges they encounter, express
different points of view that I share, even as they conflict with each other.
There are endless ways to work with these themes - it’s a matter of
grounding them in a time and place with characters you love. As you get to know
the characters, they will tell you more about themselves. That’s when the story
begins to reveal itself, often in surprising ways.
Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy worked as an actress and writer in
film and television in the United States
and Israel. Night
in Jerusalem is her debut
novel, which she has adapted to film. She lives in Ojai California
with her husband and daughter.
She writes, “I lived in Israel
in the 1960s, a naive twenty-year-old, hoping to find myself and my place in
the world. The possibility of war was remote to me. I imagined the tensions in
the region would somehow be resolved peacefully. Then, the Six Day War erupted
and I experienced it firsthand in Jerusalem.
I have drawn Night in Jerusalem
from my experiences during that time. The historical events portrayed in the
novel are accurate. The characters are based on people I knew in the city. Like
me, they were struggling to make sense of their lives, responding to inherited
challenges they could not escape that shaped their destiny in ways they and the
entire Middle East could not have imagined.
I have always been intrigued by the miraculous. How and
where the soul’s journey leads and how it reveals its destiny. How two people
who are destined, even under the threat of war and extinction, can find one
another.
Israel’s
Six Day War is not a fiction; neither was the miracle of its victory. What
better time to discover love through intrigue, passion, and the miraculous.
Writing this story was in part reliving my history in Israel,
in part a mystical adventure. I am grateful that so many who have read Night In
Jerusalem have experienced this as well.”
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