Aliyah : The Last Jew in the Village

Description

An alluringly graphic narration of a little-discussed chapter of Kerala’s and the world’s history: the migration of the black Jews to the promised land of Israel. It is a moving tale of the reluctant migrants torn between two loyalties: to their native soil and to their Jewish identity. Fiction here turns into a site for raising some of the vital ontological questions of the post-globalized world: about identity, being, becoming and belonging. A gripping novel that moves from the past to the future and from strange dreams to stranger reality.’ K Satchidanandan ‘NEXT TIME IN JERUSALEM’ uttered every Passover, these words kindle, within the small Jewish community of Kerala,a homesickness for their promised homeland. They must prepare to break all ties with the place they have known and loved for centuries all in response to the Zionist call. Salamon, the tongue-tied, day-dreaming firstborn of his family, must decide whether to set sail or stay back as the last Jew in Cochin the place where his ancestors had found sanctuary for it was here that their roots had struck, amongst those who accepted them as neighbours, classmates, teachers. In this story of cultural and religious identity, told through three generations of a Jewish family in Kerala and their complex interpersonal relationships, Sethu weaves together myth, history and fiction to create a compelling narrative about man’s constant search for home and permanence.