Three Daughters: A Novel

This story relates to the intergenerational secrets, loves, betrayals and conflicts of three Christian daughters in Palestine, spanning seven decades.In the story, Three Daughters, I discovered the Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land for four centuries, beginning in 1517 and ending in 1917. In 1917, the British captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks.Russia bought land in the Holy Land during the nineteenth century, and built hostels, a hospital and churches. This brought a flood of Russian Christian pilgrims. One of the Russian tourists, who visited the Shrine of Nazareth in November 1881, fell ill.Jamilla, of the Mishwe family, who resided in Tamleh, ten miles away from Jerusalem, tended to the Russian during his illness. However, Jamilla’s husband contracted the man’s illness and died. After recuperating, the Russian returned home without knowing he and Jamilla had conceived a child.To prevent the family’s disgrace, at the urging of her mother, widowed Jamilla hurriedly married Mustafa, a mute. A daughter, Miriam, was born in 1892.Miriam suffered neglect from her mother. Jamilla expressed no love, praise or admiration for her daughter, which might have been her feelings concerning Miriam’s secret conception. Jamilla had twin boys for Mustafa.Mustafa, a good husband and kind-hearted man, adored his blue-eyed, first child, Miriam. He never assumed her paternity being questionable.Families married within their clan, and a cousin had first right with any female relative. So, at sixteen, against her wishes, Miriam married her cousin, Nadeem Mishwe. Nadeem loved Miriam deeply, but she did not love him. As a child, she had learned to read and write, and yearned a better life beyond the compound of the clan. Although courageous, outspoken, and opinionated, she acquiesced, respecting her husband’s authority. They had three sons.Turkey conscripted Nadeem in their Army in 1911. He and Miriam owned a linen shop in town. Although she lacked the fundamentals of math, Miriam capably managed the linen shop during Nadeem’s absence. A woman operating a business was unheard of at that time; however, a kind customer did assist Miriam with the basics of math.Miriam met German physician, Dr. Max Broder, when her eldest son, Kahlil, almost lost his leg in a carriage accident. She volunteered in the hospital during Kahlil’s convalescence. Thus, a friendship began with Max and Miriam that would change her life forever.When a disabled Nadeem returned from the Army, he and Miriam had a daughter, Nadia.Nadia grew into a clever, candid, irrepressible young woman, who much to the clan’s dismay loved and rode a horses. She expressed individualism, and scorned the family’s gatherings, didn’t like their affectionate kisses or their age-old traditions of marriage.Nadeem loved his only daughter. Against Miriam’s advice, he pampered her, and passively submitted to whatever Nadia desired.When Max died in a horsing accident in Egypt, Nadia and two other young girls were bequeathed education at an exclusive French school in Jerusalem.At eighteen, Nadia fell in love with an Englishman, her school friend’s father, a man twenty-years her senior. She decided to marry him against her parent’s advice and the clan’s tradition. However, her cousin, Samir Saleh, loved her.Handsome, intelligent, articulate, Samir, grew up with wealth. His father was the sheik, leader of the clan. Although Samir had received a university education in England, he remained nationalistic, loved his family and Palestine. A visionary, he had no intention of becoming westernized. Samir also loved Nadia, but realized the clan’s intermarrying could breed genetic abnormalities.Divulging a family secret, Miriam became the driving force behind Samir winning Nadia’s heart from the Englishman. Samir expressed profound loyal love, admiration, and respect for Nadia throughout their marriage. And Nadia had an unwavering, deep passionate love her husband.Nadia had disrupted pregnancies that ended between the second and third trimesters. Having a son was considered extremely important in the clan. Nadia became panic-stricken at not having a child. Yet Samir, devoted to her, loved her despite her fears and misgivings concerning a child.A pregnant Nadia, who had made it to her third trimester, presented Samir with a daughter, named Nijmeh, when he returned from an American business trip with his brother-in-law.Their daughter, Nijmeh, expressed genuine humility. She had a dire need to please her parents. Unlike her mother, Nadia, she appeared to be a fragile, gentle, obedient child who respected her father’s wishes, even when it resulted in her losing the man she loved, James Saad, a man of English and Arab extraction.Nijmeh’s parents chose a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ Paul Halaby, a gynecologist, educated in America, and working in Washington, D.C. He planned to return to his homeland within five years.A clan member, Paul had returned to Palestine to find a wife. In the States, he had torrid affairs with his patients and staff. After marrying, he had non-monogamous desires, refusing to control his sexual appetite for other women.Delal George, Nijmeh’s first cousin had fallen for Paul, but once he saw the beautiful Nijmeh, he scorned Delal. Delal had always envied Nijmeh. She had used her wits and charm to achieve her goals, hiding her true malevolent self. She would continually try to destroy Nijmeh’s happiness.After marriage, Nijmeh became trapped in a loveless marriage in a new country, but remained deferential toward Paul. To Americanize Nijmeh’s name, which means star. Paul suggested she change her name to ‘Star.’Unhappy marriages are rarely declared happy by producing children, but Paul required a child. Nijmeh and Paul had a daughter, Cassandra. Their marriage disturbances continued and ultimately ended unhappily.Eventually, Nijmeh discovered secrets that rocked her sensibility concerning her origin with her mother, Nadia.Nijmeh had begun to gain control over her life, developing her own individualism. She rationally and critically questioned her pattern of life and its path.Knowing yourself is a lifelong process, and Nijmeh was on a journey of love, forgiveness, courage, and discovery.The author had a great story even without the small amount of sex, which didn’t appear until the middle of the story.Some reviewers were disturbed by the sex, because the book concerned ‘Christian’ women. We readers need to be opened-minded and remember Christian women fall from grace too.Maybe the author was advised, as one reader mentioned, to add ‘spice’ from her editor. I personally know this to be a fact. Editors will suggest this for sales purposes.In this novel, malevolent Delal and Paul appeared corrupt. The author brought out their depravity in their sexuality.There is so much to learn about the history of the Holy Land. You will be amazed at how the country’s past history, known for its original Israelite descendants, is also a melting pot, steeped in North African, Roman, Arab, French, Russian, German, Polish, and English ancestry.I gave this book four stars. There is a hint of Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream characters: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena with Three Daughters’ characters: Nijmeh, James, Paul and Delal.

When I come across an author, the very first thing I do is check if they have a Wikipedia page. If they do not, my usual reaction is not to bother with them. After all, there are books and books everywhere. That has now changed with all those free books for Kindle and that is how I discovered this book.Daughters is a 'saga' that traces the lives of three generations of women over the years. Set in the Middle East before it became the Middle East of today, the story weaves through the lives of Miriam, her daughter Nadia and her daughter Nijmeh in context of the changing times of the two world wars with the personal travesties of the characters and the effect of the times on the lead women in the foreground. Do not be fooled by the beginning of the book as, though it opens like a primer to Middle East history, it picks up right away and you are in the story before you know it.Each of the women can be seen as rebels of their own times, saddled with something that set them apart - Miriam with her blue eyes, the result of a Russian father, Nadia with her mixed features and her height, the result of a German father and Nijmeh with her extraordinary beauty, and her shocking parentage. All three lead more than ordinary lives and Ms. Baehr does a wonderful job of making them seem extraordinary and yet, very ordinary.The writing was surprisingly good (specially for a book that I got free) and the story had me engrossed. Coming from a family of seven girls, reading the book felt like I was listening to narration by a cousin. The only reason why I gave this book four stars was that despite the very good writing and the wonderful characters, the book did seem a bit too tragic with all the women having dark secrets of their own yet paling away immediately when the new daughter acquires a secret.On the whole, a very well written book and I would recommend this to lovers of all saga fiction and to anyone who grew up amongst a lot of women, young and old.

I am a fully grown man, I saw this book and most importantly, saw it had narration.Then I saw that the narration was priced at a couple of quid.No one likes a bargain more than me!!Wait, it continues to get better and better.The books narration lasted twenty three hours!!How can I not exclaim?So my biggest fear, was that this book would be twenty three hours of horse droppings.Praise be to to Elvis, it turned out to be one of the best books, that I have ever read, or been read to me.I make a judgement when I finish a book, how good was it?Would I take it with me to the other side?Without a doubt!!We are all insignificant individuals, who opinionate and can't wait to give forth our views.We each have been created differently from each other, we each perceive things differently.So one persons heaven is another person's hell.This book is my heaven, and I have nuts.Consuelo is my lifelong friend (though we have never met) because she enhanced my life, with this stunning story.Can I also thank the narrator, Karen Peake.I love a narrated book, this narration has been the best that I have ever listened to.It was a joy listening to Karens natural talent, and for the myriad of different voices.If I could marry someone for their breathing talent, I would would definitely take Karen up the aisle.Thank you for tickling me under my chins.

This is the first time I have felt moved to write a review. I am an ardent fan of Victoria Hislop ( The Island etc) and Khaled Hosseini ( The kite runner etc) Three daughters is up there with those books. Three generations of daughters, their good and bad times set in a sometimes turbulent Middle East, it shows the strength of these women and their capacity to love. I will certainly be looking out for this author, I cannot recommend this book too highly.

This book kept me gripped from beginning to end. It is a sweeping tale of love and loss, betrayal and hope, following the lives of three generations of Christian Arab women in what is now Israel/Palestine.The historical detail is fascinating, moving from the Ottoman Empire, through World Wars 1 & 2, the end of the British Mandate and the beginning of the State of Israel.As can be expected through this epic scale, the changes involved are far-reaching with all the political upheaval impacting the families involved. The resistance to change as far as the upbringing of daughters was concerned provides lots of tension in the girls who seek some measure of autonomy in decision-making, whether simply wanting to choose their own husbands, or not to marry, or to take up a career. Conflict also arises from sons seeking their futures in America.Women are central throughout the book. The expectations of their families and customs, their marriages, the pain of infertility, of repeated miscarriage, of investment in sons, of all kinds of machinations going on, is dealt with so honestly that we feel their pain and frustration, share their griefs and joys. We see trouble looming for naive youngsters and hold our breath to see whether they will embrace trouble or escape it. One particular girl is so devious, such a self-centred, manipulative troublemaker that we beg in our hearts for her to be stopped in her plans. Very sensibly, the author does not overstep into clichè or stereotype. Life and the people in it are raw and real and like life, there are not always happy endings.Occupation, conscription, injury, sickness, life and death are all here with the heartbreak involved, yet this book is not a litany of despair or cause for depression. Far from it. We see very clearly people's frailties and failings but above all, we see strength and hope.This really is a wonderful book, superb piece of storytelling.Highly recommended.

This is a book of 3 thirds. I was engaged in the first part, (enjoyed learning alot aside of the plot line), kept going & with more to learn in the central section but am finally SO alienated by the last part, especially now it's set in the U.S. (there is nothing to keep me hooked & an awful lot to infuriate me, it bears NO relationship to the first 2 sections) that I'm about to give up. The description of physical interaction between the sexes is just bizarre particularly given the social context of this book. I never don't see a book out to the end. However this has become a total waste of my time (& the oddness of the English which sat acceptably in Palestine has begun to grate in New York). Good luck but think twice before you commit time to such a good starter that may become an unbearable irritant before you can see it through.

I enjoyed this story of three generations of Palestinian women, which centres on their emotional lives and every day challenges. This rather rambling story is written in bizarrely constructed and clunky American English, which I found distracting and a bit annoying. Initially, I thought it had been badly translated but I realise now that English is not the author's first language and she lives in America, which explains the strange idioms and construction! I think, for this reason, the book would benefit from some judicious editing. All in all, though, an enjoyable read and something a bit different.