The Debt of Tamar by Nicole Dweck; St. Martin’s Press © 2015; ISBN 978-1-250-06508-1, 291 pages; $25.95
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – There is a kabalistic concept that everything in the universe must be balanced; that what occurs in this world also affects what happens in the after world; and that the cosmic insistence on this principle applies not only to earthquakes, tidal waves, civil wars or other momentous events, but even to so minute a matter as an unfulfilled love affair between a young, wealthy Jewish woman and a future ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
In The Debt of Tamar, debut novelist Nicole Dweck whisks us from Inquisitional Spain to medieval Turkey and thence to Turkey’s modern-day incarnation. She tells stories as the legendary Queen Scheherazade might once have done, weaving picturesque descriptions, romance, suspense, and surprise. You are enticed by Dweck through the centuries until the debt of Tamar, who was once engaged to be married to a young sultan, eventually achieves its cosmic balance.
There is an important subtheme in this novel: the heavy cost of abandonment on the ones left behind. We see abandonment’s pronounced effect not only on the young sultan who had been denied his true love, but also on a child whose parents gave him up for adoption, a father whose child by royal decree has been removed from his home, and brothers separated in one case by an accident, and in another case, in a search for identity.
Save for its fiery beginning, this makes for pleasant reading. If you’re one who also enjoys classical music, cue the Rimsky-Korsakov.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. You may contact him via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com