Henna House

May 26, 2014
At first glance, Eve’s follow-up to The Family Orchard appears to be an expansive historical novel about Yemeni Jews in the first decades of the 20th century, only to settle into a smaller-scale tale of women navigating the strictures and delights of their domestic lives. In 1920, Adela Damari, daughter of a kind Jewish cobbler and his shrewish wife, lives in the mountain village of Qaraah in the Kingdom of North Yemen, then ruled by the oppressive Imam Yahye. Because Adela’s father is sickly, the family lives in terror that she will be forcibly adopted and converted by a Muslim family should he die—as allowed for by law. However, the family’s attempts to avert this fate by marrying her off come to nothing. Adela’s lonely life changes after the arrival in the village of members of her extended family, including her Aunt Rahel and cousin Hani, who introduce Adela to the art of henna. The heart of Eve’s book lies here, amid Adela’s tight-knit sisters-in-law, aunts, and cousins, as the women cook, bake bread, and minister to their husbands and brothers. What’s missing from the touching coming-of-age story that ensues is a better sense of the historical forces acting on these Jews of the Saudi peninsula during a time frame that extends right up to the start of WWII. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners.