The Red Tent

This book by Anita Diamant deeply resonates with me. Its bold emphasis on women's experiences, including menstruation, stirs a profound connection. The way it upends patriarchal historical narratives made me rethink my understanding of history.

It's not just a book I read; it's a book that prompted introspection and left a lasting impact on me.

The Red Tent is about sisterhood and the ways aunties and mothers and daughters support each other.

It’s stunning visually; I read this book almost twenty years ago and can still conjure up the rangy desert and the dusky interior of the eponymous tent. Diamant offers a unique perspective on what was arguably the first Jewish/Gentile love affair, between the Bible’s Dinah, the only named daughter of the patriarch Jacob, and the Prince of Shechem.

It was the first Jewish historical fiction book I ever read and will always have special a place in my heart.

Anita Diamant takes a little-known character in the Bible, Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, and expands upon the one line of text given to give us.

The result is a rich, lyrical tale of women in a difficult time. This story is loosely woven on the biblical one, offering alternative, intriguing views and viewpoint. The red tent itself is a symbol of the unique bonding of women, how they find strength, support, and resilience in each other, a network of supporting roots.

I always thought of myself as a loner, but the older I get, the more I… show more.

In my late twenties, I faced a stark reality: history belongs to those who write it. What I had learned in school was simply the history according to the white Christian patriarchy.

The voices of women, as well as people of many ethnicities, religions, and cultures, were silenced. I began to seek out books in which diverse characters were allowed to speak. 

Reading The Red Tent opened my eyes to the possibility of writing historical fiction from the perspective of a woman. As I listened to Dinah’s voice in the novel, speaking so honestly about matters of the heart, I… show more.

This interpretation of the Biblical story of Dinah is beautifully written in the first-person perspective. It exquisitely and vividly invokes a lost and fascinating ancient world. I particularly enjoy Diamant’s depiction and celebration of the love between mothers and daughters, all while honoring the resilience and resolve of the female spirit.

The Red Tent was my introduction to biblical fiction and made me want to look deeper into the stories of the untold women of the Bible. This sweeping tale of the four wives of Jacob and his daughter, Dinah, brings us an intimate portrait of these long-ago women. It’s a story of love, jealousy, and betrayal built upon the ancient text of Genesis, but the glowing prose and insight into their lives bring us as close to these ancient women as we are to our own mothers and daughters.

This is a sensual, warm and alive book carrying a profound depth of feminine understanding. It is beautifully written and transports me to another world, with characters who are flawed and wonderful. The concept of women gathering happily to bleed together in a restful red tent while eating honey cakes was, for me at least, groundbreaking. There is real love for the feminine and our ability to bleed, to conceive and birth, and to enjoy sexuality fully. The sexism and cruelty of the age are not shyed away from, and the women handle it with strength, resourcefulness, and dignity. This… show more.

The Red Tent is a classic, one that was almost required reading for book clubs in the late ’90s. In this international bestseller, Diamant retells the Biblical story of Jacob’s daughters. Its focus on mothers, daughters, and women’s cycles made the ancient world come alive with its rich, lyrical prose.