Half the House

Berghash's impressionistic memoir charts her relationship with her homeland during a lifelong journey of self-discovery, beginning with a child's-eye view of the city's sacred mysteries, her family's religious orthodoxy, and the underlying kinship between Israelis and Palestinians. At 18, she serves in the Israeli army, but when she marries an American artist, she moves to New York City and raises a family. Living outside the homeland she loves and having abandoned her adherence to religious strictures, she shuttles between her original and adopted countries.