The Red Tent

Name: The Red Tent
Rating: 4.4 (12914 reviews)

by Anita Diamant

Amazon

4.4(12,914)

The Red Tent retells the story of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, from the perspective of the women around her. The novel follows Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah through marriage, motherhood, rivalry and household ritual, making the women’s tent a centre of memory, birth and female community. Dinah’s own life moves from Jacob’s household into the violence at Shechem and then beyond it, as the book reimagines a brief biblical episode as a wider story of family, loss, survival and women’s experience in the ancient Near East.

Historical Periods

Mesopotamiac. 3500–539 BCE Ancient Egyptc. 3100–30 BCE Ancient Israel and Judahc. 1200–586 BCE

Historical people

Dinah1701 BCE–1591 BCE Jacob1792 BCE–1645 BCE Leah1732 BCE–1666 BCE Rachel1730 BCE–1686 BCE Bilhah Zilpah Laban Josephbiblical figure; traditionally placed in the 2nd millennium BCE Reuben1670 BCE–1446 BCE Simeon1669 BCE–c. 21st century BCE Levi1567 BCE–1430 BCE Judahborn 1567 BCE