Hanah's Paradise Released

Nov. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- Brief summary of the novel: Since medieval times, all first-born members of the far-flung Ravayah family have journeyed to Hanah’s Paradise, a mystical place in the Galilee. There they have recorded their life stories in the family archives--chronicles that now hold many volumes of writings, drawings, recipes, and music from every corner of the world, a microcosm of the history of the Jewish people.

Now Salomeia, a young immigrant from Romania, arrives to join her grandfather and take over the job of keeping the chronicles. With pain and wonder, she unearths tales of long-ago relatives like Don Simeon, a poetic young man forced to conceal his identity in Portugal during the Inquisition. She also learns what happened to her own parents during the Holocaust--traumatic events they have long hidden from her. Salomeia’s discoveries, along with the current conflicts in Israel, propel this novel to its surprising conclusion.

Here's what advance readers have to say:

National Book Award winner Lily Tuck:
"Like Scheherazade, the narrator of Ligia Ravé’s beautifully rendered novel, HANAH’S PARADISE, has to tell stories--in this case her family’s stories--in order to keep memory alive. . . . Told in wonderful, vibrant language, the tale of the Ravayah family has the magical, almost dreamlike quality of a García Márquez story, only this story has taken over a thousand years to tell and there is, as yet, no end to it."

Pushcart Prize winner Ken Kalfus:
"An epic of faith and family, HANAH’S PARADISE spans one of the more eventful millennia of Jewish history. Ligia Ravé writes with passion, wisdom and a profound knowledge of the way the past tugs at the heartstrings of the present moment."

Arts critic Carrie Rickey:
"Imaginative and playful, Hanah’s Paradise is Ligia Ravé’s heirloom garden, a paradise lost and rediscovered, lush with erotic poetry, tasty recipes and Jewish mysticism. Ravé takes the reader from Eden to eternity, provocatively proposing a scenario that transcends conflicts in the Middle East."

The book is available at the publisher's website, http://newdoorbooks.com/, at online booksellers, and through orders placed at bookstores.

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New Door Books publishes new, innovative fiction. An imprint of P. M. Gordon Associates, Inc., New Door is editorially managed by the Working Writers Group in Philadelphia.