The Red Tent

Anita Diamant

$14.95

ISBN 0312195516

Picador USA

Fiction

"Her name is Dinah.  In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons in the Book of Genesis.

Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood - the world of the red tent.  It begins with the stories of her mothers - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Billhah - the four wives of Jacob.  They love Dinah and give her gifts that are to sustain her through a hard-working  youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land.  Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate, immediate connection.

Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich story-telling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society."