The Only Daughter written by A.B. Yehoshua is the story of a young girl living with her parents and grandparents in Italy. Rachele Luzzato is preparing for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah with an Israeli Rabbi who has come to Italy to teach. She is also being asked to play the part of the “Mother of GD” in the school’s Christmas play. The teacher says Rachele would be perfect for the part because of her skin tone and curly hair. Her father refuses to let her participate in the play.


Her maternal grandparents are Catholic, though her grandmother describes herself as “a devout atheist who is nonetheless careful not to sabotage the Jewish faith of her only granddaughter.” Her paternal grandfather survived the Holocaust masquerading as a priest. Her father was born as the war is ending in a small Italian village, brought into the world by a Nazi sympathizing doctor, who saved the mother and baby’s lives.


Though out the novel runs a thread about the 19th-century Italian novel “Cuore” (“Heart”), by Edmondo De Amicis. This book had special significance in Yehoshua’s life and he interweaves the stories in this book to emphasize the points he is trying to impress upon the reader. There are so many topics in this novel to analyze and ponder.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

A.B. Yehoshua's The Only Daughter is what I think of as a "stealth read." A good stealth read has two characteristics:
1. The reader understands more than the narrator does due to historical or cultural knowledge.
2. The narrator recounts difficulties that have depths the she herself doesn't recognize.

Our narrator, Rachele Luzzato, is growing up Jewish in post-WWII Italy. Her family is diverse in its approaches to faith, to whether Judaism is a cultural of religious identity, to whether or not there is a G-d, to the extent to which one should be limited by conventional morality. Her paternal grandparents, the Jewish side of the family, were separated during WWII. Her grandfather survived by passing as Catholic. Her grandmother fled to Austria, where she gave birth to Rachele's father.

Rachele's father's is shaped in many ways by a war he is too young to remember, and he can't or won't explain to Rachele why she isn't allowed, for example, to participate in her school's nativity play. Rachele, knows she's Jewish, not Christian, but doesn't understand why this fact would prevent her from taking on a role as part of a dramatic production. Pretending to be someone won't change who she really is.

Rachele's father is also ill with a potentially terminal condition that he refuses to speak of—at least to her.

In a way, Rachele is wise beyond her years: she's asking and attempting to answer questions about identity and faith and mortality that have become lifetime quests for some very remarkable thinkers. She doesn't realize that her questions are remarkable. She just knows that she not being told everything and can't understand why what seems like basic information should be withheld from her.

Because we know more about the history of World War II and Italy's role in it and know more about about processes of illness and death, we understand her dilemma in ways she doesn't. He telling of her story is straight forward, occurring along the timeline of her own life. We see the complex web underlying that apparent simplicity, so we both share Rachele's journey and can see with some clarity what has come before it and what is apt to come after it.

The Only Daughter is an oddly gentle book despite all that it deals with. It's a book that demands readers deal with historical forces, but does this without cruelty. It's a book one can read in a single sitting, but because we both see what Rachele sees and see well beyond her own range of vision, that brief reading will leave lots to mull over afterward. I strongly recommend this title for anyone of a reflective bent. If you ask questions about the why and the how of our world, The Only Daughter will help you understand those questions in a variety of ways.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

This book was really interesting and beautiful. A bit more intelligent than books I normally read, but kept me in for the whole book. Also a quick read.

It is so sad that A.B. Yehoshua passed away in December 2022, he was such a great writer. This book is no exception, it is beautifully written. Main character Rachele Luzzato is 11 years old, living in Italy, preparing for her bat mitzvah and finding out her father has a brain tumor. There is a weird book, since nothing really happens. Rachele travels between her grandparents houses, talks about being Jewish in Italy, and tries to figure out her future. The writing is beautiful though, so I did really enjoy it and look forward to reading the author's backlist. Thanks to Harper Via Books and Netgalley for the advanced e-copy.

I am a fan of Yehoshua and I loved The Only Daughter . The author usually creates characters and stories involving the people and issues within Israel . Here he has broadened his canvas and the focus is the "only daughter" of a Jewish family in Italy. Navigating the runup to her bat mitzvah is particular challenge given the place and family issues. I can't imagine anyone who would not enjoy this book.

The Only Daughter is the fascinating story of Rachele, an only child, coming of age in Padua, Italy. Rachele is surrounded by mostly non-Jewish classmates, but she is diligently studying for her bat-mitzvah. Her world is thrown into turmoil when she learns her father is gravely ill. Rachele is thrust into the hands of her grandparents and even an older school teacher, as her parents confront her father's illness. Rachele learns improtant lessons from everyone. Yehoshua's novel teaches us all how to balance the unavoidable conflicts that ame up our lives.

I was 165 pages into Yehoshua's final novel before the year 2000 appeared in the text. And I was surprised. The writing, the descriptions, I thought it was set sometime post WW II, and it rejiggered everything I'd read up until that point. There is no reference to cellphones, or the internet, or Google, etc, and the setting, mostly Venice, Italy, seems a throwback to a different time, when the Holocaust was still very close in time, and though decades have passed, the Holocaust and how to retain one's Judaism are very much the themes. The main character is Rachele, from a wealthy Northern Italian family, with mixed marriages. Her father and his parents are Jewish, her mother and her parents are not, but Rachele is being raised Jewish, is, at 12, bright and beautiful, curious and inquisitive, studying for her Bat Mitzvah. She sees things, makes connections, interacts on a level more adult that her years. There are drawers within drawers in this short lovely novel, objects turn out to have deeper meanings, there are clues and secrets and masks and disguises, and threaded delicately with Judaism, the war, the Holocaust, assimilation, the longstanding hatred towards Jews, and more. It has all of Yehoshua's themes but it's Venice setting was new for him, and it felt to me like the kind of place that is outside of time. Quite beautiful.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Via for an ARC.

Rachele is eleven, almost twelve, with a precocious intelligence and a certain naïveté. In Padua, where she lives, her family are oddities of a sort, Jews in a Catholic country. But Rachele is not quite in a place, yet, to worry about the differences in the beliefs of different religions—her concern is more that her non-Jewish grandmother might be hurt by a Hebrew prayer that puts Jews first. With her father unwell (growing an appendage, as Rachele understands it), Rachele seeks to better understand her place in the world in this character-driven book.

Religion and family are the thickest of themes throughout the book, though neither of them is treated too heavily—every character treats their religion, whether Jewish or Christian or atheist, slightly differently; Rachele loves her family with the uncomplicated passion of a child, and is forced for the first time to consider that her parents might not be invincible, but if I had to pick a singular thing to answer the question of "what is this book about," I wouldn't say illness or religion but rather a girl on the cusp of growing up.

I'm very curious about the inspiration for this novel—Yehoshua was Israeli and lived almost his entire life in Israel; as far as I can tell neither he nor his family ever lived in Italy. It's hard to know what to make, then, of this story of a girl, in so many skins that the did not wear—religious outsider, girl, Italian. (Especially curious to me when Yehoshua wrote and spoke so passionately about his Israeli identity.) It would be interesting to see what a female author might do with this same subject—some parts of this book (e.g., a priest's treated-as-well-intentioned wish that a pretty, lively eleven-year-old were ten years older so that he might marry her) could only have been written by a man, and...I suppose I'd like to hear from a woman who was once eleven and Jewish in Italy what that was like for her.

It's been so interesting to delve a bit more into translated fiction this year—such different styles! Hard to know how much of that is cultural and how much is just a given author's styles...I suppose I'll have to keep reading more books by more people from far-flung places to gather more data.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

DNF @ 30%

I just couldn't get into this book. It was bizarre and didn't like the writing style. I think this novel needed a good editor. The writing was choppy and some scenes should've been cut from the final book.

i'm not sure how i feel about this one. it was interesting but at times, i felt myself losing interest. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet coming of age story in which a young girl grapples with a crisis of faith and her dad's failing health. Though, I wonder if I missed anything from this translation and how it compares to the original text.

I didn’t really love this book although I no longer care for books centered around kids. Especially rich, overindulged kids. Perhaps if I were 11-15, I might appreciate it better. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a short and intimate glimpse into a Jewish-Italian girl's life, as she grapples with her father's illness and their shared faith.

Plot?
Whatever you interpret from the synopsis, I can say with confidence that this book has no plot.

But, that's not a bad thing. The length of the book paired with the narrative style worked for me. It didn't feel slow nor boring, perhaps a bit simplistic, but I want to believe that that was kind of the point.

Rachele is twelve years old. She is an only child and is curious about the differences between Jews and Christians, especially after she discovers her father would not allow her to play the Virgin Mary in a school play. Her father is also sick and in need of medical attention. We follow Rachele and several adult figures in her life as they all divulge their opinions on faith, tradition, class, and illness. This story is more about what Rachele is told, rather than what she thinks. Or, perhaps, it's about the questions she forms with the different perspectives she encounters—questions that are answered differently by those around her.

Subtly brilliant, or simply mediocre?
Well, I think it's both.

There is something to be admired about the gentleness this book exuded. It had a calming tone; I felt as if time had stopped. The atmosphere was rich, one I could feel around me.

Then there was Rachele herself. Much like the Virgin Mary, whom we shroud with holiness, Rachele was covered in a glow of innocence. But, this "innocence" sometimes came off as immaturity. I would find myself picturing Rachele as a seven-year-old girl rather than twelve. I believe this served a purpose to the objective of the novel, but it wasn't something I enjoyed.


There isn't much to say other than I didn't hate it, nor was I super impressed by it. When I finished, it felt like the story was over before it started, but enough of me was satisfied to let go.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and HarperVia for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Authors bandy about the word “masterpiece” so often in their blurbs on the backs of books that the word doesn’t have the oomph it used to. I myself use it in those times when I’ve just come to the end of a book that changed me in significant ways. That gave me renewed faith in art, and in other human beings. This novel has been a sledgehammer in those ways. I was so moved, by the story itself, by what it taught me of human beings, by the artistry and humanity of the author of these words. It’s one of those novels that are seemingly small in scope and yet contain multitudes. A perceptive little girl is at the heart of this novel. he sees everything. She understands in the way of a child, a way of understanding that can mix ignorance and wisdom in the most profound ways. She disarmed and upended me. You may ask me, all right, what is it about?—and I’ll say look at other reviews if you need to know the details but then come to this novel with an open heart. With a child’s heart. Then let your knowledge of life and history wrap itself around the words on these pages and create a dialogue with this writer and find your meanings. Open your heart to it. It may change you, too.

I enjoyed this novel. The characters were fully fleshed out and interesting, and though the plot felt a little slow in places the story felt very real.

The Only Daughter, Rachele, is used to getting her way and being doted on by her parents and grandparents. Now at 11, she is asserting her independence and confronted with many decisions -- from the beginning where she has to find her way to her father's office from school and encounters twists and turns, to additional decisions around whether or not to follow numerous directives from her family and retiring teacher, to the most important of how to handle her father's "appendage" -- likely a brain tumor, and how to navigate being a Jew surrounded by (mostly sympathetic but ignorant) Catholics in Italy.
Although set in modern times, much about the tone felt very old-fashioned, including some creepy nakedness for the young girl with older women, and numerous cases where she tries to make a decision but ends up going along with what others want for her and being more or less fine with it.
Overall, there was some very good dialogue and endearing characters and situations, but on the surface it was a pretty light tale in line with Rachele's age and maturity, and I missed the amazing depth I typically associate with Yehoshua.

This is a bit odd. Based on the writing style, descriptions, and settings, I initially thought that this book was set in the 1950s, not the late 1990s. It's a book about identity, and how we develop our identities; in this case, religious identity. Rachele, age 12, is from a family full of mixed marriages between Jews and Christians. Raised as a Jew, she attends a Catholic school, where she's cast as Mary in the nativity play before her father, angry, yanks her out of it. She loves studying Hebrew in preparation for her Bat Mitzvah, but wonders a lot about Jesus and the rituals of Catholicism. With her father seriously ill and her mother a rather absent parent, Rachele's religious identity is uncertain, and as she edges closer and closer to her Bat Mitzvah, she seems to become more and more interested in Christianity. She's still very much a child, though, and her questioning reminds me of myself a bit and the mixed religious family that I grew up in. While the book also investigates issues of race and immigration, class and money, and mental health, identity is central, and is compelling all the way through.

(3.5 stars) Rachele Luzzato is an only daughter in a mixed Jewish household in Italy. She’s also the only grandchild of both sets of her parents’ parents. Being the only daughter and only grandchild means that Rachele gets a lot of attention, but she doesn’t always get her way. Rachele struggles in particular to live within the Jewish rules her father applies. For instance, Rachele has been offered the cherished part of Mary, Jesus’ mother in the Christmas play held at the local Catholic cathedral, but her father forbids her to take the role. At the same time, Rachele’s father suffers a serious illness (brain tumor) that puts his life at risk and Rachele’s care in question. Despite the various forces that are at work in the girl’s life, including her charismatic Jewish grandfather and her Catholic grandparents on her mother’s side, Rachele longs to not be an “only” anymore.

I did not know before I read this book that its author – A.B. Yehoshua – has been called the “Italian Faulkner” and that he recently died, at the age of 85. These facts made me feel more deeply the portrait of this young girl. When judged as a novella or a short story, this book offers a rich portrayal of a lonely girl who is coming of age. It suffers in comparison with novels, however, which was what I expected.

Thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.

Rachele Luzzato is a twelve year old girl living with her Jewish family in Northern Italy during the 1990s. She was born into a successful, wealthy family, as both her grandfather and father were lawyers. Although her family lived in a mansion with servants, they did face antisemitism, but did everything in their power to conserve their Jewish heritage. Rachele's father becomes gravely ill and Rachele leans on her family members for support as she navigates the ever-so-complicated world while growing up.

Overall, I enjoyed this book! There were a lot of key moments and quotes that I really liked. I loved whenever Rachele would talk with her grandmother, as her character was probably my favorite. She always gave the best advice to Rachele, especially in regards to conserving one's faith, which I found very inspirational. The author also gave a lot of insight as to how Jewish families lived post World War 2, which was also very interesting to read. Although Rachele's family was very rich and successful, that did not stop the antisemitism from which they faced from their peers.
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One thing about this book is that it is a short read and could be probably be finished in one sitting. However, the quality of the story and writing was still very good. I will recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for this free copy in exchange for my honest review.