Daughters of Jerusalem

A prize-winning, darkly dramatic story of family secrets and hidden desires, set in the heart of Oxford

By: Charlotte Mendelson

Narrated by: Fleur de Wit

Beautifully written and bitingly funny, Charlotte Mendelson's prize-winning Daughters of Jerusalem is a gripping novel of hidden love and hate, of the desire to belong, and the need for escape.

Amidst the crumbling yellow stone of Oxford and its prestigious university, secrets are stirring within the Lux family home . . .

Jean, the constrained and guilt-ridden wife of an academic, is waiting for excitement – and it will come from an unexpected source.

Eve, Jean's intelligent eldest daughter, luxuriates in wounded murderous jealousy of her younger sister and is on the brink of snapping.

Raymond, the loathed rival of Jean's husband, begins to show interest in Eve.

And Helena, Jean's best friend, has a confession, the revelation of which may just alter everyone's lives forever.

'Brilliant and witty . . . Mendelson's second bewitchingly erotic and darkly dramatic novel confirms her as a stylish, perceptive chronicler of the heart's hidden desires' - Daily Mail

'Superb . . . funny, exciting, lyrical, poignant, redemptive' - Guardian

Critic reviews

This deliciously waspish — actually, hilarious — story of a destructive Oxford academic family has stayed with me longer than many did. Pure, very wicked joy (Andrew Holgate)

A superb, hilarious farce of dysfunctional academic family life . . . Funny, exciting, lyrical, poignant, redemptive

Brilliant and witty . . . Mendelson’s second bewitchingly erotic and darkly dramatic novel confirms her as a stylish, perceptive chronicler of the heart’s hidden desires

Brilliant . . . exhilarating . . . Exciting and memorably written, this is one of those rare reads that has you galloping to the end, but feeling bereft at having to say goodbye so soon

An engaging combination of campus satire and domestic drama . . . In Daughters of Jerusalem Mendelson has created a blue-stocking thriller

Miss Marple meets Rosamond Lehmann . . . luscious prose and droll comedy . . . suffused with longing, studded with recherché words and clotted with gastronomic metaphors that make you feel that you should be reading on a chaise longe, stuffing yourself with violet creams

Savagely funny and hilariously cruel, it . . . convinces through the sheer power of the writing

A delicious tale of intrigue and betrayal

Bold . . . engaging . . . an undoubted talent for comic observation

A witty and absorbing work of fiction . . . wonderful . . . surprising and satisfying

Written with great sharpness and has thrilling detail (Julia Darling)