I Am Forbidden: A Novel
Markovits’ sprawling novel chronicles family members’ diverging generational journeys anchored by the laws of religion. In Transylvania, in 1944, five-year-old Mila Heller’s parents are brutally killed. She is taken in by the family of Hasidic rabbi Zalman Stern and becomes close with the younger daughter, Atara. The family moves to Paris’ Jewish quarter, where the children are raised under Zalman’s strict religious observance. As teenagers, the girls are sent to a seminary, and while Mila’s religious faith deepens, so does Atara’s dream of freedom. At 17, Mila is engaged to Josef Lichtenstein, an orphan who witnessed the murders of his own parents. Meanwhile, when Atara learns that she is next to be married, she chooses an opposing path. Markovits then shifts the focus to Mila’s adulthood in America, where she and Joseph experience their own struggle with the expectations of their faith and community. The saga culminates in 2005 in Manhattan, where long-held secrets jeopardize the core of the Sterns’ identity. Markovits creates a vibrant, multilayered tale set within the conflicting obligations of faith and family. --Leah Strauss