There is a glossary in the back of many of the Jewish terms used in the book, but I also looked up a lot of information online as I was reading. This story was hard to put down once I started reading. The author herself was raised in the Satmar community, but she left as a teenager to avoid an arranged marriage.

In the Satmar Jewish faith, a man is expected to divorce his wife if there are no children after 10 years of marriage, and Mila's inability to conceive leads her to an act of desperation.This was a riveting story that had me hooked from the first chapter. Mila has her own struggles later as a married woman. As they grow into young women, Mila's faith intensifies, while Atara learns more about the outside world and wants to leave the faith, even if it means her family will disown her. Mila is raised as a sister to Zalman's daughter Atara. Five years later, Josef rescues a young girl, Mila, after her parents are killed by the Nazis after trying to avoid deportation.Joseph helps Mila find the home of her father's friend, Zalman Stern, a leader in the Satmar Hasidic Jewish community. He is rescued by the family's Christian maid and raised as her son.

Read moreĪs the story opens in 1939 Transylvania, a 5 year old Jewish boy, Josef, witnesses the murder of his family by the Romanian Iron Guard. Dark, powerful, and utterly compelling, I Am Forbidden takes us deep inside the minds of those who leave their restrictive environments, and deep into the souls of those who struggle to stay. Separated by the rules of their community, the two sisters are brought together again when a family secret threatens to make pariahs of them all. One sister embraces and finds comfort in the constraints of the world she's always known, while the other knows she will suffocate in a life without intellectual freedom. Spanning four generations, from pre-World War II Transylvania, to 1960s Paris, to contemporary New York, Markovits' masterful novel shows what happens when unwavering love and unyielding law clash-a rabbi will save himself while his followers perish a Gentile maid will be commanded to give up the boy she rescued because he is not of her faith two devoted sisters will be forced apart when one begins to question their religion's ancient doctrine. The extraordinary story of a sister who believes and a sister who rebels, set inside the most insular Hasidic sect, the Satmar.

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits