The Only Daughter

When Rachele Luzzato is cast as the Madonna in the school's Christmas play, she feels the threads of her life begin to untangle. These disparate influences blend in her imagination to create a fantasy that transcends her religious and cultural conflicts.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 07 July 2022
Publisher: Halban Publishers

When Rachele Luzzato discovers that her father is gravely ill, she is just 12 years old. Despite the excitement surrounding her Bat-Mitzvah, Rachele's teachers decide to cast her as the Madonna in the school's Christmas play. This creates a conflict in her life, as she is pulled in different directions by the fear of losing her father and the demands of the play. As various forces compete to guide and care for Rachele, including her charismatic Jewish grandfather, her Catholic grandparents on her mother's side, and an old teacher who believes that a nineteenth-century novel can provide solace, her life begins to unravel. However, these disparate influences blend in Rachele's imagination to create a fantasy that transcends the religious and cultural conflicts of her everyday life. Her sole hope is to end the loneliness felt by an only daughter.

A.B. Yehoshua paints a poignant portrait of a young girl on the cusp of adulthood in this novel. With great subtlety and tenderness, he explores the complexities of Rachele's journey and the challenges she faces as she navigates the tensions between her family, faith, and personal desires. Through her fantasy, Rachele seeks to find a sense of belonging and connection, and in doing so, she discovers the power of imagination and the resilience of the human spirit.

Weight: 194g
Dimension: 135 x 215 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781912600137