Daughters of Jerusalem

Beautifully written and very funny, Daughters of Jerusalem is a gripping tale of hidden love and hate, of the desire to belong and the need for escape.

‘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’ – Independent

Behind a crumbling facade of seeming normality, secrets begin to stir within the Lux family home. Jean Lux, constrained academic wife and guilty mother, is waiting for excitement – and it will come from an unexpected source. Meanwhile Eve, her intelligent elder daughter, luxuriates in wounded jealousy, until her loathing for her only sister verges on the murderous.

Into this climate of static repression and bitterness enters Raymond Snow, the deadly rival of Jean’s husband, who begins to show interest in the vulnerable Eve. Meanwhile, Jean’s best friend, Helena, has something she is yearning to tell: a confession that may alter everyone’s life forever.

Daughters of Jerusalem won both the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award.

‘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