Seven Blessings

"While the machinations of matchmakers have long been a staple of fiction, King's debut novel puts a fresh spin on the subject....King's portrayal of a religious community is as warm and engaging as any in contemporary literature. Her characters jump off the page and into the hearts of her audience...charming, spiritual tale." --Library Journal

"A gentle evocation of love and faith in Jerusalem's Orthodox community....King then seems, like a Jewish Jane Austen....Much of the story's strength rises from King's generous description of Jerusalem....A tender enlightening debut that, urban setting aside, reads like a comedy of provincial manners." --Kirkus

"Two Orthodox Jewish matchmakers strive busily to marry off their neighbors in this bustling debut novel set in modern-day Jerusalem...her richly detailed descriptions of Jerusalem (the reader can almost smell the falafel frying) and her sympathetic characters make this a fully realized novel." --Publishers Weekly

"It shimmers...Its setting is suffused with the glint of Jerusalem light, its characters infused with the city's spirituality....In short, a gem of a novel." --Jewish News of Greater Phoenix

"Ruchama King successfully marries the romantic and the religious, the ancient and the modern, in a captivating tale about modern day match-making among the newly pious Americans who have made Israel their home. What I loved most about this spell-binding first novel, was the reader's total immersion in a world of ritual and longing." --Helen Schulman, author of P.S. and The Revisionist

"With warmth, wisdom, and an abundance of affection, Ruchama King opens up a fascinating world. Mining the everyday moments of her characters' lives, she expertly explores love and marriage, belief and hope." --Tova Mirvis, author of The Ladies Auxiliary

"Arranged marriages will never look the same. Ruchama King transforms the life of Orthodox Jerusalem into the universal terms of love and courtship--and yes, real intimacy and self-fulfillment. A perceptive and charming book." --Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights

"Ruchama King is herself a great matchmaker--between the sensual and the ethereal, between subtle storytelling and startling revelation. Her novel moves with a grace I have not encountered. What a loss it would have been to have never read it, or for her to have never written it." --Stephen J. Dubner, author of Turbulent Souls and Confessions of a Hero Worshipper