The Singing Fire — Lilian Nattel

With vivid prose and magical realism, Lilian Nattel brings another remarkable novel set in a historic Jewish community -- the bustling alleys of London's East End in the late nineteenth century -- to life.

Nehama, a young Jewish woman, leaves her family and comes to London to fulfill dreams of independence. But a girl on her own who doesn't speak English is an easy target and Nehama is forced into prostitution. Yet with only the whispers of her deceased grandmother to guide her, she manages to escape into the narrow alleys of the respectable East End, where bustling marketstalls and penny seats at the theatre are just a hand's breadth away from the criminal warrens.

Emilia, arrives in London ill-prepared, and pregnant and Nehama takes her in. But Emilia refuses a hardscrabble life and finds refuge in the privileged classes of the West End at the expense of her identity and even her baby, Gittel, who Nehama adopts. As the two women walk their own separate paths, Gittel becomes their nexus; and Nehama and Emilia find the true meaning of their lives in the narrowest of London's alleys.

Lilian Nattel masterfully brings to life a vanished world, embracing the dilemmas of class, gender, culture and history with an imaginative and fearless voice.