When Marek Halter's award-winning international bestseller The Book of Abraham was published here in 1986, it was greeted with unanimous praise and compared with Roots, War and Peace, and the works of James Michener. That epic portrayal of a Jewish family through history -- based in large part on the records of the Halters themselves -- ended in the midst of World War II, with the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. Here the author picks up the thread of the family saga in the postwar period. Like most of European Jewry, the Halter family is decimated and dispersed: Sidney and his family in New York; the Lerners in Moscow; Don Israel and Dona Regina in Buenos Aires; Mordecai and his family in Israel. At the heart of the new epic is Hugo Halter, an elusive and haunting figure who, as a young man in the late 1930s, had warned of the coming Holocaust. Most had not listened and perished in the conflagration. As this book opens, Hugo and his German wife, Sigrid, are driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in March 1961. Hugo parks to gaze in wonder at the magic city spread before him. Suddenly a military truck approaches, and as it passes submachine-gun fire erupts from it, killing both Hugo and Sigrid. Why were they assassinated in cold blood, presumably by Arab terrorists? Who exactly was Hugo: an agent? A double agent? Working for whom and to what ends? In Paris, Marek Halter, the self-appointed family scribe, sets out to find the answer. At the same time, another cousin, an officer in the Israeli secret service, begins his own official investigation. Their paths, and lines of inquiry, sometimes cross, often diverge, as different versions of the same episode appear in oddly varying lights. The result is a suspense novel of high intrigue, but also a panorama of contemporary Judaism, with its conflicts and contradictions, its struggles and achievements, its heady victories and discouraging defeats. - Jacket flap.

Product Description Set in the magnificent culture of the Middle East more than four thousand years ago, Lilah is a rich and emotionally resonant story of faith, love, and courage. Living in exile, Lilah is in love with Antinoes, a Persian warrior. They have known each other since they were children, and Antinoes dearly wants to make Lilah his wife. Yet Lilah does not feel she can marry without the blessing of her brother, Ezra. She and Ezra are close, and Lilah knows her brother well—he does not want his sister to have a husband outside their faith. Ezra is a scholar of the laws of Moses, and Lilah believes it is her brother’s destiny to lead the Jewish people back to the Promised Land. While Antinoes pressures her to accept his proposal, Lilah realizes that before she can consider her own happiness, it is her duty to help her brother accomplish the seemingly impossible task that is before him. Putting herself in grave danger, and with the help of Antinoes, Lilah wins Ezra an audience with Artaxerxes II, the King of Kings, who grants permission to lead the exiles on their journey back to the Promised Land. After a hazardous trip across the desert, Lilah, Ezra, and the thousands who join them arrive in Jerusalem. But the hardship of rebuilding the Temple takes its toll, and the religious enthusiasm of some turns to extremism. Ezra, listening to the zealots, orders all non-Jewish wives and their children banished from Jerusalem. Lilah, whose love for Antinoes has never wavered, is horrified by this command. She knows she must now choose between her brother and her conscience, which tells her that the time has come to defy him. Lilah is a timeless story of one woman’s stand against intolerance; it will linger in the reader’s mind long after the last page has been turned. From Publishers Weekly In his final installment of the Canaan Trilogy ( Sarah; Zipporah), Halter ambitiously tackles portions of the complicated biblical book of Ezra, which centers on the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple and calls Israel to ethnic and religious purity. In the Persian town of Susa, the beautiful Lilah dreams of marrying her Persian lover and childhood sweetheart, Antinoes. However, her beloved brother Ezra, who has immersed himself in studying the laws of God, refuses to approve of their union since Antinoes is not a Jew. As the story unfolds, with scenes full of rich detail, Lilah becomes the unlikely instrument of gaining royal approval for the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the holy city. However, once there, Ezra orders all non-Jewish wives and children driven away in what is surely one of the most heart-wrenching episodes directly from scripture. A horrified Lilah repudiates her brother and leaves with them. As the cast-off women wander unprotected outside the city, rape, murder and mayhem ensue. (It's confusing that Lilah narrates one violent scene, but readers are unsure how she survives it.) As in Sarah and Zipporah, there is plenty of highly charged sexuality and some imaginative storytelling. Unfortunately, as with its predecessors, the story trails off, and the ending is unsatisfactory. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From AudioFile Ellen Reilly brings the story of Lilah, sister of Ezra, the biblical prophet, to life. Perhaps not many are familiar with the story of Ezra, which takes place more than four thousand years ago during a sad time in Israel's history. Lilah is torn between her love for her brother, Ezra, and her love for a Persian warrior. She must choose, and her choice will bring far-reaching consequences. All the emotion and turmoil in the story are made real by the talented Ellen Reilly. One can easily feel the heartache, passion, and drama of this book. Fascinating and well worth a listen. N.L. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine About the Author Mar