"Sometimes shocking, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes very funny, Reva Mann's story is a fascinating glimpse into a hidden world."--
Elle "Mann tells her story with genuine humor and self-deprecating wit, winning the sympathy of even disapproving readers. Mann's coming-of-age story speaks directly to young people struggling with questions of family, faith and identity."--
Booklist "A gripping book, harrowing and devastatingly honest, as well as an important book."--Naomi Alderman, author of
Disobedience, winner of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers
In this honest, daring, and compulsively readable memoir, Reva Mann paints a portrait of herself as a young woman on the edge—of either revelation or self-destruction. The daughter of a highly respected London rabbi, Reva was a wild child, spiralling into a whirlwind of sex and drugs by the time she reached adolescence. But as a young woman, Reva had a startling mystical epiphany that led her to a women’s yeshivah in Israel, and eventually to marriage to the devoutly religious Torah scholar she thought would take her to ever greater heights of spirituality. But can the path to spiritual fulfillment ever be compatible with the ecstasies of the flesh or with the everyday joys of intimacy and pleasure to which she is also strongly drawn? With unflinching candor, Reva shares her struggle to carve out a life that encompasses all the impulses at war within herself. An eye-opening glimpse into the world of the ultra-Orthodox and their elaborately coded rituals for eating, sleeping, bathing, and lovemaking, as well as a deeply personal rumination on identity, faith, and self-acceptance, The Rabbi’s Daughter is at its heart a universal story, a journey toward redemption that is an unforgettable read.