DAUGHTERS

by Consuelo Saah Baehr ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1988

From Baehr (Nothing to Lose, 1982; Best Friends, 1980), an unspectacular but ultimately satisfying generational about three Palestinian Christian women. It all begins near Jerusalem, in the little Palestinian village of Tamleh, around the turn of the century. Fiery, independent-spirited Miriam is forced to marry her cousin Nadeem Mishwe, who turns out to be a nice enough sort, but hardly one to set Miriam's veil afluttering. When he's conscripted into the Turkish army, she begins an affair with Max Broder, a German doctor in Jerusalem who saves her young son's life. Max becomes the true passion of her life--although there's no question of her leaving Nadeem--and before Max is killed in a riding accident, he gets Miriam pregnant with a daughter, Nadia. Nadia grows up during the period of the British protectorate of Palestine after WW I. With a bequest from ""Uncle Max,"" she attends a fancy boarding school and (to her family's horror) falls in love with a handsome but rather caddish Englishman--the father of one of her classmates--named Victor Madden. Nadia thinks that she's marrying him, in fact--but the man she can barely make out behind her thick veil is actually her cousin Samir; her family has driven Victor from the country and substituted the handsome Samir at the ceremony in the church. Unbelievably enough, Nadia and Samir go on to have a happy life together--except that Nadia can't conceive. That's taken care of, however, just after her last miscarriage, when a plane conveniently crashes behind Nadia's home, leaving alive a burbling baby girl from a well-to-do American family. Nadia takes the child--named Nijmeh or Star--as her own, with no one the wiser. As is usual in novels of this sort, the third generation is the weakest--but Star marries a cold-hearted doctor, moves to Washington, D.C., and becomes an early career woman. Engaging, if unsurprising.

Pub Date: July 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION