The Marrying of Chani Kaufman - Tapa blanda

'Some of the women (the story is mostly told from a female perspective), could have been created by Jane Austen or Mrs Gaskell. Snobby, comic Mrs Levy, Chani s future mother-in-law, is furious that her 20-year-old son Baruch (Hebrew for Blessed), is marrying beneath him. His bride, 19-year-old Chani, is one of eight daughters of a financially strained rabbi and his exhausted pudding of a wife. Worse, Chani is a girl with a mind of her own.' --Sue Fox, Sunday Express

Well-written, unapologetic, unvarnished and undisguised. --Gerald Jacobs, Jewish Chronicle

Harris evokes the community s insular nature, she also suggests the sense of comfort and belonging that it confers, offering a sympathetic window on a way of life little glimpsed in contemporary fiction. --David Evans, Financial Times

In a narrative that weaves the viewpoints of the bride and groom, it is the third story which provides the emotional and thematic complexity needed to raise the story to a Booker contender. It is the story of Rivka, a rebbetzin, whose ambitious husband, Chaim, marries the couple. --Danuta Kean, The Independent

Judaism may be the setting but Eve touches on universal themes. It's about being true to ourselves when even our closest friends seem at odds with our chosen lifestyle. It's about forging a set of values when everything around us, locally and globally, seems to encourage the antithesis. It's about being human. It's about being alive and I adored it. --Ani Johnson, The Bookbag

'Humour abounds, but so do pathos and anger. Harris s eye for suburban social mores is wickedly acute, as is her evident relish in describing both the sensual life and its absence.' --Catherine Taylor, The Guardian

'This novel is beautifully done and highly recommended.' --Victoria Moore, Daily Mail

Eve Harris was born to Israeli-Polish parents in Chiswick, West London, in 1973. She taught for 12 years at inner-city comprehensives and independent schools in London and also in Tel Aviv, after moving to Israel in 1999. She returned to London in 2002 to resume teaching at an all girls' Catholic convent school. 'After the Wedding' was inspired by her final year of teaching at an all girls' ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in North West London. Eve lives in London with her husband, Jules, and their daughter Rosie.