The Fairest Among Women — Shifra Horn

A second Israeli bestseller from Shifra Horn, The Fairest Among Women, tells the life story of Rosa, fabled to be the most beautiful woman in all Jerusalem. Rosa's life coincides with the fifty years of the state of Israel--she was born during the War of Independence in the 1940s and disappears on a cold winter night in the 1990s--and her absorbing tale is part history, part fairy tale, and part legend. The novel combines generational family stories with folklore and magical realism into a unique literary accomplishment.