T's Stuff: Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy’s NIGHT IN JERUSALEM Blog Tour

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy’s NIGHT IN JERUSALEM Blog Tour

Title:
NIGHT IN JERUSALEM

Author: Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy

Publisher: PKZ Inc.

Pages: 246

Genre: Historical Romance

A bewitching love
story that is also an extraordinary portrait of Jerusalem, its faith, spirituality, identity, and
kaleidoscope of clashing beliefs, Night in Jerusalem is a novel of mystery, beauty, historical
insight, and sexual passion.

David Bennett is
invited to Jerusalem in 1967 by his
cousin who, to the alarm of his aristocratic British family, has embraced
Judaism. He introduces David to his mentor, Reb Eli, a revered sage in the
orthodox community. Despite his resistance to religious teaching, David becomes
enthralled by the rabbi’s wisdom and compassionate presence. When David
discloses a sexual problem, Reb Eli unwittingly sets off a chain of events that
transforms his life and the life of the mysterious prostitute, Tamar, who, in a
reprise of an ancient biblical story, leads both men to an astonishing
realization. As passions rise, the Six Day War erupts, reshaping the lives of
everyone caught up in it.

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David lay awake thinking about Anat. He was intimidated by
her sexuality, but also fascinated by her free spirit and daunting intelligence.
He had never met anyone like her. He wondered if Jonathan and the others knew
she preferred women lovers, and why she had confided in him. He became anxious,
thinking perhaps she sensed he had sexual issues and was someone she could
easily manipulate.

Earlier, out on the roof, he had asked her why she preferred
women. She had answered simply, “For the same reasons you do,” then adding, “I
find women more interesting intellectually, as well as sexually.”

Her directness was equal parts frightening and exciting. He
wanted to know her better. Perhaps, with her, he could get over his sexual
problem. The truth was, he desired her as much as he found her intimidating.

Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy worked as an actress and writer in
film and television in the United States
and Israel. Night
in Jerusalem is her debut
novel, which she has adapted to film. She lives in Ojai California
with her husband and daughter.

She writes, “I lived in Israel
in the 1960s, a naive twenty-year-old, hoping to find myself and my place in
the world. The possibility of war was remote to me. I imagined the tensions in
the region would somehow be resolved peacefully. Then, the Six Day War erupted
and I experienced it firsthand in Jerusalem.

I have drawn Night in Jerusalem
from my experiences during that time. The historical events portrayed in the
novel are accurate. The characters are based on people I knew in the city. Like
me, they were struggling to make sense of their lives, responding to inherited
challenges they could not escape that shaped their destiny in ways they and the
entire Middle East could not have imagined.

I have always been intrigued by the miraculous. How and
where the soul’s journey leads and how it reveals its destiny. How two people
who are destined, even under the threat of war and extinction, can find one
another.

Israel’s
Six Day War is not a fiction; neither was the miracle of its victory. What
better time to discover love through intrigue, passion, and the miraculous.

Writing this story was in part reliving my history in Israel,
in part a mystical adventure. I am grateful that so many who have read Night In
Jerusalem have experienced this as well.”

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Interview with Gaelle Lehrer

How did you come up with the name of this book?

The story takes place in Jerusalem, a city more redolent of mystery than anywhere else. It is not uncommon for visitors there to fall completely under the spell of its energy, having visions of the archetypes of religious faith as they wander the city streets. Psychiatrists call this experience the “Jerusalem Syndrome.” I have always been affected by the energy of place, and never more so than in Jerusalem. Its unseen, nighttime world is the wellspring of the book’s plot, even though the story is set against the backdrop of the Six Day War. I want the title “Night In Jerusalem” to evoke the mood of the city and point to the spiritual story that unfolds there.

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?

I read a lot. I love stories that are told simply, where the writer is unobtrusive and the characters and plot say it all. To my mind, Isaac Bashevis Singer is the master of this kind of writing. It is simple in the most elegant way. I think it was Einstein who said it is easy to make something complicated, but it takes genius to make things simple. Einstein gets blamed for a lot of stuff, I know, but you get the point. It is hard to write stories that are so clear and transparent you can see right into the souls of the characters. That’s what works for me. I don’t care what the genre is. If it does that, I’m in!

Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?

I need complete silence when I write. Otherwise, the spell is broken and I come out of the world where my characters live, and I lose touch with them.

What do you feel you can accomplish with this book?

The themes in this novel have been with me my entire life. I do not have answers to the questions they bring up: why does it take such courage to truly love, how impossible it seems to bring peace to the world, and, of course, why “God works in mysterious ways.” The characters in the book, and their responses to the challenges they encounter, express different points of view that I share, even as they conflict with each other. I want the book to show how these differences can be contained in fulfilled and inspiring lives, and how happiness depends on us embracing our individual destiny, not on following any prescribed path.

What is your next project?

I am presently working on a novel about the middle class in America and what happened in the last recession when millions were thrown into life altering changes they are still trying to work out.