In 1950's Brooklyn, sisters Rose and Pearl Weiss grow up in a loving but strict ultra-Orthodox family, never dreaming of defying their parents or their community's unbending and intrusive demands. Then, a chance meeting with a young French immigrant turns Rose's world upside down, its once bearable strictures suddenly tightening like a noose around her neck. In rebellion, she begins to live a secret life – a life that shocks her parents when it is discovered. With nowhere else to turn, and an overwhelming desire to be reconciled with those she loves, Rose tries to bow to her parents' demands that she agree to an arranged marriage. But pushed to the edge, she commits an act so unforgivable, it will exile her forever from her innocent young sister, her family, and all she has ever known. Forty years later, pious Pearl's sheltered young daughter Rivka suddenly discovers the ugly truth about her Aunt Rose, the outcast, who has moved on to become a renowned photographer. Inspired, but nave and reckless, Rivka sets off on a dangerous adventure that will stir up the ghosts of the past, and alter the future in unimaginable ways for all involved. Powerful, page-turning and deeply moving, Naomi Ragen's The Sisters Weiss is an unforgettable examination of loyalty and betrayal; the differences that can tear a family apart and the invisible bonds that tie them together. *Starred Review* Growing up in a strictly Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn in the 1950s, Rose Weiss and her younger sister, Pearl, are very close, until Rose, always the rebel (reading Anna Karenina with a flashlight under the covers), finally leaves home to escape an arranged marriage, eventually becoming a celebrated photographer. Pearl follows the rules as docile daughter, dutiful wife, and breadwinner, working so that her husband can study the Talmud. But things do not turn out as planned for either sister, and in the next generation, Pearl’s daughter, Rivka, runs away from her pious husband to find her artist aunt, while Rose’s daughter finds her mother’s family. Readers familiar with Yiddish will love the wry idiom (What else do you want already?), but the intense personal drama will reach a wide audience across ethnicity. Returning to her community after 40 years, Rose finds that nothing has changed—neither the prejudice nor the caring love, if you are one of them. The oppressive traditions seem both ludicrous and cruel, yet freedom can bring its own brutality and messes. The ­political-activist husband fights for equality—except for his wife. The secrets hold you to the very end, when the sisters confront the universal question: Whose memory is true to what really happened? --Hazel Rochman “Naomi skillfully spins her magic with credible, charismatic characters we can easily relate to . . . the shining importance of family values, and finding out who we really are, even if it is the hard way.” ― Tatiana de Rosnay, New York Times bestselling author of Sarah's Key, on The Tenth Song “[ The Tenth Song is a] vivid and compelling story about the cost of security and the value of love as a woman struggles to save her husband, her daughter – and herself.” ―India Edghill, author of Delilah and Queenmaker “A page-turner illustrating the horrifying consequences of becoming embroiled in the American legal system.” ― Kirkus Reviews on The Tenth Song “The pleasure of this novel is in its mercilessness, with Ragen raising the stakes until the very end.” ― Publishers Weekly on The Saturday Wife “A thrilling page-turner from start to finish, The Covenant is . . . Ragen at her finest hour.” ― Faye Kellerman, New York Times bestselling author of Hangman “An emotionally potent book.” ― Kirkus Reviews on Jephte’s Daughter NAOMI RAGEN is the author of eight novels, including several international bestsellers, and her weekly email columns on life in the Middle East are read by thousands of subscribers worldwide. An American, she has lived in Jerusalem for the past forty years and was voted one of the three most popular authors in Israel. Her books include Sotah , The Ghost of Hannah Mendes , and The Covenant . The Sisters Weiss By Naomi Ragen St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2013 Naomi Ragen All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-312-57019-4 CHAPTER 1 Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1956 Years later, when the terrible sins — both real and imagined — they had committed against each other had separated them seemingly forever, the sisters Weiss would remember that night very differently. What really happened was this. It was a Friday night. Crowded around the enormous, dark walnut dining room table that took up the entire living room were the immediate family (except for their two eldest brothers, Abraham and Mordechai, both off learning in an upstate yeshiva), a distant cousin who had just come over from Poland, and the usual pale, eager Talmud students who changed from week to week. Shining in their Sabbath finery, everyone sat up straight waiting for the m