Lebanese Brazilian author Hatoum’s first novel, The Tree of Seventh Heaven, won Brazil’s Jabuti Prize in 1990 and was subsequently translated to considerable acclaim. Here he tells the story of twin brothers whose destructive relationship stems primarily from their mother and has devastating consequences. Although Omar and Yaqub share certain character traits, their mother believes that they have very different physical and emotional needs. While Omar is the cherished son, Yaqub is banished from the family for years as the result of a fight with his brother. Yaqub gains courage and chooses to distance himself from the family, while Omar becomes more parasitic and eventually sees his one truly loving relationship with a woman outside the family destroyed by his jealous mother. Hatoum depicts the dark side of a family unable to see its own shortcomings, carefully peeling back the layers to reveal the torment that twists love into pain. He forthrightly describes life in all its vicissitudes yet creates a sense of mystery about what really happens when family members confront each other and their demons. Filled with evocative images of life in postwar Brazil, this book will interest those seeking new writers. Caroline Hallsworth, Sudbury P.L., Ont. Copyright [...]

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When Emilie’s parents launch plans to emigrate from Lebanon to a pioneer life in the Brazilian Amazon, she flees her beloved Beirut in despair, intending to become a nun. Emir, her youngest and not entirely stable brother, tracks her down and threatens to shoot himself unless Emilie leaves the religious life immediately. Still despairing, the girl joins her relations in their new, sometimes fantastic existence in the jungle city of Manaus. With her she brings a trunk containing her nun’s habit, the convent’s hypnotic black clock, and other private keepsakes. Decades later, upon her death, Emilie’s extended family gather in Amazonia to ponder memories of the matriarch: her fervent piety, her tempestuous marriage to a devout Muslim, and the secrets she hoarded within the locked trunk. Hatoum, who teaches at the University of the Amazon in Manaus, Brazil, weaves a seamless, memorable family saga of touching and outrageous stories recounted by those who for years loved and feuded with Emilie. Recommended for most fiction collections. – Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.

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