Winter in Jerusalem
By (Author) Blanche d'Alpuget
Allen & Unwin
A & U House of Books
1st June 2012
Australia
Paperback
320
Width 127mm, Height 198mm
290g
Danielle Green's reasons for returning to the city of her birth, Jerusalem, during the first Lebanon War are twofold: first, she is researching a screenplay that she hopes will make her rich; second, she is seeking a reunion with an autocratic Jewish father who has refused to acknowledge her existence for most of her life. After a separation of many years and many miles, she hopes he will be willing to reconcile with her.
In the quest for her past, Danielle is reunited with a former teacher, an old woman of deep wisdom. She falls in love with an Israeli and is drawn into a web of terrorists and nationalists, soldiers and survivors. Yet the confusion, divisiveness and famed aggression of Israel is only the best-known part of an oft-repeated story. The country's progress, hindered as it is by centuries of religious, emotional and political turmoil, provides the backdrop to Danielle's personal journey of growth and self-respect.
Alive with the splendour and pulse of Jerusalem itself, Winter in Jerusalem is a stunning story of a woman caught in the crossfire of her own past and the tangled drama of modern Israel.
Winner of the inaugural Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, Australasian division.
Blanche d'Alpuget is the author of seven books, including four novels - Monkeys in the Dark (1980), Turtle Beach (1981), Winter in Jerusalem (1986) and White Eye (1993). These works earned her a number of literary prizes including the PEN Golden Jubilee Award, The Age Book of the Year Award and the South Australian Government's Award for Literature.
d'Alpuget's first book, Mediator: A Biography of Sir Richard Kirby was published in 1977 to critical acclaim. Robert J. Hawke: A Biography (1982) was both a national bestseller and the winner of several awards. She is also the author of On Longing and Hawke: The Prime Minister.
She has served on the boards of the Copyright Agency Ltd and the Australian Film Commission, and was the Chair of the Australian Society of Authors in 1991. She lives in Sydney with her husband and son.