The Only Daughter

A Novel

By: A.B. Yehoshua

Narrated by: Gail Shalan

“An old-fashioned book, free of cynicism, encroaching technology and intricate plotting, but imbued with a heartfelt and optimistic view of humanity—in other words, a book filled with feeling and moral values.”—New York Times Book Review

From the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Israeli author, a stunning novel that brilliantly illuminates a young girl’s crisis of faith and coming-of-age in Italy.

Rachele Luzzato is twelve years old when she learns that her father is gravely ill. While her family plans for her upcoming bat mitzvah, Rachele finds herself cast as the Madonna in her school’s Christmas play. Caught between spiritual poles, struggling to cope with her father’s mortality, Rachele feels as if the threads of her everyday life are unraveling.

A diverse circle of adults is there to guide Rachele as she faces the difficult passing of childhood, including her charismatic Jewish grandfather, her maternal Catholic grandparents, and even an old teacher who believes the young girl might find solace in a nineteenth-century novel. These spiritual tributaries ultimately converge in Rachele’s imagination, creating a fantasy that transcends the microcosm of her daily life with one simple hope: an end to the loneliness felt by an only daughter.

In this wondrous story A. B. Yehoshua paints a warm and subtle portrait of a young girl at the cusp of her journey into adulthood.

A nice slice of postwar northern Italian life

I liked the portrayal of a young, wealthy Jewish girl, with one set of grandparents who are not Jewish and another grandma who is a converted Jew turned atheist and divorced from the Jewish grandfather. The daughter, who will be bat mitvahed, is the sole Jew in her class. Her father ‘s memory of the Holocaust impinges on her life. Embellishing the story are the social contrasts between her urban home in northern Italy, the Dolomite region, and Venice.