Joheved, eldest daughter and the first book in the trilogy, is passionate about the study of Talmud, and struggles to find a balance between student and wife. Book II is about Miriam, who dedicates herself to midwifery upon the death of her betrothed, and faces many challenges to her role as the only female circumciser in the Jewish community.
Anton’s third installment of the trilogy is about Rachel, Rashi’s youngest, most beautiful and favorite daughter. While Rachel also studies Talmud, her commitment is to the family business, her own jewelry and money-lending operation, and starting a textile operation where their family would control the production of cloth from sheep to sale. She is the only daughter who married for love, and is constantly torn between her devotion to her family and her traveling husband, who wants her to join him on his journeys.
“Rashi’s Daughters, Book III: Rachel” sets the scene with such vivid imagery and detail, and one cannot help but feel like they are a part of the culture. Anton craftily weaves a bantering subtext of the world outside Rashi’s Jewish community that flows through the story, and the reader not only gets a sense of the complex nuances of societal hierarchy, but also senses the impending doom as the pilgrims for Christianity begin to extol their “virtues” onto nonbelievers throughout Europe and the Byzantine Empire.
The author’s moving segment of familial sacrifice by Miriam’s son Elisha as they face a barrage of homicidal pilgrims is one of the most emotional, heart-wrenching passages a reader will ever come across.
