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|borrow=Yes

|isbn=978-0099535997

|pages=288

|publisher=Vintage

|amazonus=<amazonus>0099535998</amazonus>

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''The House of Rajani'' is set in Jaffa, Palestine in 1895-96. The narrative alternates between the two main characters, both telling their stories in the first person. Luminsky and his wife travel from Europe to Jaffa to start a new life there. Luminsky has studied agronomy in preparation for his new life, and he and his wife have both been involved in the Zionist movement promoting an ideal of the Jewish people returning to their homeland. He is looking forward to putting his studies to good use, but is soon disappointed when he arrives by both the quality of the land occupied by Jewish colonists and their work ethic. Far from the ideal of self-sufficiency, they are buying fruit, grain and vegetables from the Palestinians. He is also frustrated by his wife’s lack of interest in having sex with him.

One of the books I plan to read is another historical novel about the Middle East, [[Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell]]. [[A Senseless Squalid War: Voices from Palestine 1890s to 1948 by Norman Rose]] is a history of the region. [[Palestinian Walks: Notes from a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh]] also looks really interesting.

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