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The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home
In this beautifully crafted memoir, a young half-Muslim, half-Christian woman travels to India to connect with a tiny Jewish community and unlock her family�s secret history.
Sadia Shepard grew up in a joyful, chaotic home just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where cultures intertwined, her father a white Protestant from Colorado and her mother a Muslim from Pakistan. H...more
Sadia Shepard grew up in a joyful, chaotic home just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where cultures intertwined, her father a white Protestant from Colorado and her mother a Muslim from Pakistan. H...more
Hardcover, 364 pages
Published
July 31st 2008
by Penguin Press HC, The
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The author of this memoir grew up in Colorado, the daughter of a white Christian father and a Pakistani Muslim mother. The author's grandmother, with whom she was very close, was part of a small Indian Jewish community called the Bene Israel who believe themselves to have been shipwrecked on the western coast of India 2,000 years ago. She married a Muslim man and moved to Pakistan during Partition, and she rarely talked about her childhood and young adulthood in India. Following her grandmother'...more
This is a well-written memoir that is very much Sadia Shepard's story. It's her journey and her emotional process regarding her family connection, spirituality and cultural identification. These issues are very complex for her. She has multiple family heritages and religions.
If you wanted to read this book to find out about Bene Israel practices, there is only a small amount of that sort of content. Judging from Sadia's descriptions, I have an impression that the few Bene Israel left in the vil...more
If you wanted to read this book to find out about Bene Israel practices, there is only a small amount of that sort of content. Judging from Sadia's descriptions, I have an impression that the few Bene Israel left in the vil...more
This book got better and better as I got more and more into it. It's a true story of a woman who was born in the United States of a mixed marriage between her Pakistani Muslim mother and her Christian white father. Her grandmother (mother's mother) was born to a Jewish diaspora family in India who married a Pakistani Muslim, converted to Islam, and moved with her husband and his two other wives to Pakistan during the India/Pakistani split in the late 1940s. Her grandmother was an important part...more
Jun 14, 2011
Soonhar
added it
My friend Toni Countryman made a good point that Shepard writes like the filmmaker she is, in the sense that she keeps a distance between herself and her subjects which results in a somewhat superficial skimming, as if her camera were unable to look into the souls of her characters, including herself. That's my main complaint with the book as well, that it lacks a certain depth, both in the author's unwillingness or inability (?) to ask herself the tough questions and explore them, and in her re...more
Magical almost. This fascinating memoir is of a young woman whose father is an American Christian, mother is a Pakistani Muslim, and grandmother, to whom she was very close, who was a Jew from the coast of India who became a Muslim when she married a Muslim man. Shepard goes to India as her grandmother asked her to do before she died, on a Fulbright scholarship to document the Bene Israel community in India, who believe themselves to be descended from one of the missing tribes of Israel who were...more
I found Shepard's memoir of her path to and on her Fulbright year enjoyable. Despite a few books on my shelves of far-flung Jewish Communities such as the Bene Israel, I am sadly mostly ignorant of them. Additionally I have a large hole in my knowledge of "real" Islam. I studied Western Religions at an introductory level in College, but it was very theoretical. I don't know much about many things as they are in the world outside the academic bubble. The portrait Shepard sketches of her identity...more
The Girl from Foreign chronicles Sadia Shepard's journey of discovery to explore her heritage. She is the daughter of a Pakistani woman of Islamic faith and a white, Protestant from Colorado. Living with the family during Sadia's childhood and young adult-hood, was her cherished maternal grandmother. At age 13, Sadia discovers a pin that had belonged to a nurse named Rachel Jacobs. It turns out that Rachel was Sadia's grandmother's name before she married. Even more surprising was that her grand...more
Interesting, but also dry parts. A woman travels to India & Pakistan to try to find her Grandmother's Jewish roots, and find out more about the Jewish community in Mumbai (Bombay). Through the book we learn also, how the author's mom emigrated to the US and married an American Christian.
What was amazing to me, was that there is an indiginous Jewish group of Indians in India! They believe they are descendants of the 12 Lost Tribes of Israel. Their oral heritage tells that they came to India...more
What was amazing to me, was that there is an indiginous Jewish group of Indians in India! They believe they are descendants of the 12 Lost Tribes of Israel. Their oral heritage tells that they came to India...more
Sep 19, 2012
Linda
added it
Subtitled “A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home,” this book is also a tribute to Rachel Jacobs, Shepard’s grandmother. Sadia is the daughter of an American Protestant father and a Muslim mother who grew up in a Boston suburb. Also in the household was her mother’s mother, Rachel, a practicing Muslim but also a Jew from India who took her husband’s religion when she married. Sadia Shepherd went to India on a Fulbright scholarship to research and film a doc...more
Excellent true story written by a girl who was raised with three religions, but went to India to find the diminishing community of the Bene Israels to learn about the Jewish community that was originally her grandmother's.
1 like · like · see review
I probably would've rated this book a little higher if (it'd been written then and) I'd read it when I was going through that same hyper-consciousness of my own multi-culturalism, back when I too was a self-centered navel gazer. But I've read many many other stories that offered more to the reader to relate to, and this was just way too much/long about Shepard's own story, or that of her grandmother's actually and without a rewarding explanation or disclosure at the end to make it worthwhile for...more
Shepard is raised in a multi faith home, Christian and Muslim. But Shepard's Pakistani grandmother, who lives with her in Boston, began life as a Jew, part of a small community in India and on her deathbed she tells Shepard to go back and find out more about this history.
I did not expect to like this book because of the subtitle; it just sounded old and familiar. But Shepard is a good writer, and her story is compelling on multiple levels--not only is it about her grandmother, but it traces Shep...more
I did not expect to like this book because of the subtitle; it just sounded old and familiar. But Shepard is a good writer, and her story is compelling on multiple levels--not only is it about her grandmother, but it traces Shep...more
This is such an interesting story. A jewish friend of mine calls me up one day and says have you heard of this story. I said I had not, and she asked me to read it so that we could have a discussion about it afterwards. I'm almost finished and find it very fascinating. Sadia Shepard is searching for something to find meaning in her life. Her grandmother was a Jew from India. That in in itself is what drew me to this book. I don't want to give away too much more, but I definitely recommend this b...more
A book worth reading. The first person narrative relates the confusion resulting from a "multi-religious background"...and not being brought up with any of them. The author relates her journey to the home of her beloved nana, and her growth along the way. Quite often these type tales come out as either self-absorbed, whiny or in other ways annoying. But not so with this book. The author is not overly dramatic and tells an honest tale. The love she feels for her grandmother is genuine, and her se...more
This book was everything it was said to be, compelling, poignant, a little sad, personal, touching, etc. Sadia's deep love for her grandmother takes her on a journey to discover her multi-cultural family's past after the death of her grandmother. I really give it to her family to be able to combine 3 religions & cultures in their home, & you could feel the love she wrote with in ever word.
This book taught me things I didn't know about both the Bene Israel's Judaism, as well as the Muslim...more
This book taught me things I didn't know about both the Bene Israel's Judaism, as well as the Muslim...more
An amazing book, combining the search for the story of her grandmother's Bene Israel past with the author's own Jewish-Muslim-Indian-Pakistani background (after having grown up in the US with her Muslim-Pakistani mother and American father). The author has also updated the story of the Bene Israel, a group of Jews who had traveled from the land of Israel east and were shipwrecked off the coast of India 2000 years ago. She has made a documentary from it, which sadly I missed at the 2009 Jewish Fi...more
A very interesting memoir/story of discovery about a woman from Boston who had grown up in a Episcopalian/Muslim household and found out that her grandmother had been part of a small Jewish community in Bombay, and had converted to Islam on her marriage.
The story of the author's journey to India and Pakistan to plumb these previously unknown roots is interesting, but I found myself wishing that the grandmother had instead managed to write a memoir. It is her story - that of a Jewish-Indian-Musl...more
The story of the author's journey to India and Pakistan to plumb these previously unknown roots is interesting, but I found myself wishing that the grandmother had instead managed to write a memoir. It is her story - that of a Jewish-Indian-Musl...more
A beautifully written exploration of the author's multifaceted family history, and how it has impacted her own life. I thoroughly enjoyed the accounts of the Bene Israel community in India, which the author was studying for a potential documentary, as well as part of a quest to better understand her own roots. She captured well the complicated nature of having a multi-cultural background, of fitting in both everywhere and nowhere. I was sad when I finished the book; I would have liked to stay in...more
Sadia Shepard's starts with her trying to discover her grandmother's past among the Bene Israel Jewish sect in India. It provides a fascinating exposure to Jewish Indians with unique roots and customs who lived harmoniously among Muslims and Hindus for generations.
Shepard paints a beautiful picture of the tapestry of life in the subcontinent. What could have been a complicated look at cultural nuances and religious stereotypes turns into a intimately personal journey that you are invited into.
Shepard paints a beautiful picture of the tapestry of life in the subcontinent. What could have been a complicated look at cultural nuances and religious stereotypes turns into a intimately personal journey that you are invited into.
This is a nonfiction book about Sadia Shepard's Fullbright Scholarhisp work researching her family's roots. Her grandmother was a desendent from a group of Jews who were shipwrecked on the coast of India two thousand years ago but converted to Muslim and raised her children in India and Pakistan (after partition). Sadia documents this group of Jews who have lived peacefully in India while discussing the confusing search of who she is - Jew, Christian or Muslim - without resolving it.
Apr 16, 2010
Doreen
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone wanting to understand India, its history and its great societal obstacles.
The story is of a young woman traveling to India shortly after the September 2001 attacks on America. She is investigating her family roots. In Pune, we learn about a large Bene Israel population. The Partition of Israel plays into her family's past, also. The journey is shared well with the reader, exposing the ever-present caste system, as well as the less-than-equal place of women in that society. It's a beautiful story with the spirit of her grandmother guiding her explorations.
At one point in this book, Sadia's friend Rekhev says something like, "The problem with your quest is you're not confused enough," which summed up really well the problem with the book. Sadia was curious to learn about her grandmother's origins, but there was no question to be answered, and her research only seemed to spur mild reflection on her own identity. The writing was fine, and there were many funny anecdotes, but there just wasn't as much of a point to it as I'd expected.
although I loved this book, I had trouble with the way she promoted raising children in more than one religion. I think that she was a confused person as a result of that upbringing, and it showed in many ways. I did enjoy reading about her journey, but was unsatisfied (as I'm sure most of us were) with the ending.....how/who did she choose? Did she choose? I've recommended it to a friend who is Muslim and whose husband was brought up Christian and converted.
I found this book in the Conservative or Reform Jewish magazine. It's a terrific work of non-fiction that is, in itself, a great story. My eldest son said it would make a great movie, and he's right.
The Girl From Foreign is the memoir of Sadia Shepard's search for her grandmother's roots in the Indian Jewish community known as Bene Israel. Not only does Ms. Shepard find her grandmother's essence, she discovers her true self in the process.
The Girl From Foreign is the memoir of Sadia Shepard's search for her grandmother's roots in the Indian Jewish community known as Bene Israel. Not only does Ms. Shepard find her grandmother's essence, she discovers her true self in the process.
A memoir with an interesting cultural twist. With an American Christian father, a Pakistani Muslim mother, and an Indian Jewish grandmother, the author goes to India to explore her grandmother's origins. There isn't much of a Jewish history in India, and certainly not a current presence, but once again, we see how the Jews have left a mark in many places, and kept a sense of their Jewishness while connecting with the local culture.
Oct 08, 2011
Sam
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to Sam by:
I don't remember but I'm glad they did!
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This book will not make literary history, but the story is very interesting, especially since I am living in Mumbai and I know so many of the places that she is talking about. Should we define our life, and our way of thinking taking into consideration the actions of our parents or in this case the grandmother? Are we a continuation of past lifes, or do we begin each time a new chapter that is the book of life?
A fascinating book about this young woman's background - and her search for the Bene Israel Community in India. Her grandmother was an Indian Jew who married a Muslim. They then moved to Pakistan. Her daughter came to America and married a Protestant from Colorado. It was so interesting to be reading this right around the time of the unrest in Mumbai.
This was well written - I'd highly recommend it.
This was well written - I'd highly recommend it.
I know it seems I always give 5 stars to every book I read; but it seems every book I read is like my most favorite book while I'm reading it... Anyway, this was amazing, such an interesting tale of the search for roots. The author goes to India and Pakistan, on her own, to research her grandmother's early life. I can't imagine going to a foreign country by myself, finding a place to live, etc, etc., and this gal did it at 28. (Maybe I could have done it at 28, too; but I sure couldn't do it now...more
I loved this book. It is a personal memoir of the author's research and work in India to learn about her grandmother's Bene Israel background. I had not finished this book in time for my book club's discussion, and found a lot to discuss too late. I loved the history, the well-drawn individuals who are her subjects and friends, and the new understanding she acquired of her grandmother's life and choices. Thiss book will stay with me for quite some time. It was a moving read of family, discovery,...more
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Jul 25, 2011 04:12pm