Footpaths in the Painted City: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home - Softcover

Shepard, Sadia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843546043 ISBN 13: 9781843546047

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2008

Synopsis

Sadia Shepard grew up in a joyful, chaotic home in Boston. Her father, a white Protestant from Colorado, and her mother, a Muslim from Pakistan, cherished their disparate customs and religious backgrounds, and created a household full of stories and storytellers, where cultures intertwined. But at the age of thirteen, Sadia learned that there was another story which she had never been told. Her beloved maternal grandmother was not born a Muslim like the rest of her Pakistani family. Instead, she had begun her life as Rachel Jacobs - a member of a tiny Indian-Jewish community. The Bene Israel believe they are descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, shipwrecked on India's Konkan coast over two thousand years ago.

Sadia headed to India in search of the Bene Israel community, wanting to understand their unique traditions, and to fulfill a promise she made to her grandmother before she died. Weaving together the story of her grandparents' secret marriage with an evocative account of a little-known and dying Jewish community, Footpaths in the Painted City is a beautifully affecting depiction of a young woman's attempt to come to terms with her family's past in order to shape her own future. It is an unforgettable story of lost stories, shrouded identities, forbidden love and, above all, self-discovery.

About this title

Review

A deeply moving journey across boundaries that most others find uncrossable, and into depths of human meaning that are rarely plumbed. An important and timely book. -- James Carroll, author

Part travelogue, part elegy to a beloved grandmother, and part love affair, Footpaths in the Painted City is a remarkable, moving and refreshingly honest account of a young woman's search for roots, for belief and a place to belong.
-- Alice Greenway, author

From the Author

Sadia Shepard is a documentary filmmaker and writer who lives in New York City. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Stanford University, and began her work with the Bene Israel community of Western India while on a Fulbright Scholarship. This is her first book. www.sadiashepard.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1843546043
• ISBN 13: 9781843546047
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384