Announcing the release of Bombay Brides: Stories of Love and Loss in a Transit Flat by Sahitya Akademi Award winning author Esther David

 

‘EstherDavid’s novels are about the Indian Jewish people; they are full of colour andremind one of Isaac Bashevis Singer and his Polish spirit’
 Marie-FranceCalle, Le Figaro

 

When Juliet Abraham, who is Jewish, has a runaway marriage with Rahul Abhiram, a Hindu, their families are initially furious but soon relent. They buy the couple an apartment in Shalom India Housing Society, Ahmedabad. However, once the couple leaves for Israel, they rent out the apartment to a series of tenants from the Bene Israel community, for each of whom it becomes the venue of an unfolding love story.

Myra comes to India from America to teach the Torah to Indian Jews. Wooed assiduously by Ezra, she instead escapes into a new life with a Hindu guru. Ruby rekindles an old flame, only to find out too late that men betray. Ilana, a strict and uptight police officer, is forced to meet potential grooms by her parents and realizes that it’s good to let loose sometimes. And Bollywood-crazy Sangita has many adventures in India as she tries to trace her grandmother’s grave. The mischievous Prophet Elijah, benevolently presiding over the small community, occasionally creates havoc but finally makes sure that peace prevails.

Bombay Brides is about home, heritage, rites, rituals and roots. It offers Sahitya Akademi Award-winner Esther David’s evocative observations on what it means to be the last surviving members of a diminishing community, accompanied by her exquisite illustrations.

‘Esther David’s world has noboundaries; the Jewish experience in India is what she knows best.’

Nona Walia,Sunday Times

About the author:

Esther David is an Indian Jewish author and illustrator belonging to the Bene Israel Jewish community of Ahmedabad. Her first novel was The Walled City, followed by Book of Esther and My Father’s Zoo. Her novel, Book of Rachel, received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English literature in 2010. She has also written By the Sabarmati and Ahmedabad: City with a Past, in which she explores the nuances of the city. Her novels have been translated into French, Gujarati and Marathi and have received awards for the French translation. Her work is included in the library of modern Jewish literature, Syracuse University Press, New York, and she has received the Hadassah- Brandeis Institute Research Award, USA, for documenting the Bene Israel Jews of Gujarat and the study of Indo-Jewish cuisine.

For more information, please write to Aman Arora at aman.arora@harpercollins-india.com