I am forbidden - Anouk Markovits

Sisters Atara and Mila were born at the onset of the Second World War into a deeply insular, ultra-orthodox Jewish sect. As the girls grow up, Mila finds she is content to live within the constraints and familiarity of the world she's always known, but Atara is consumed by questions - about arranged marriage, the education of girls, the circumstances surrounding the escape of the sect's leader during the war.

Finally forced apart by the rules of the community, the two women are brought together again when a family secret threatens to make pariahs of them all.

I Am Forbiddenis a powerful portrayal of sisters, family, faith and history which sweeps the reader from pre-war Transylvania to present-day New York, via Paris and England. Immersive, beautiful, moving, it exposes in devastating detail what happens when unwavering love, unyielding law and centuries of tradition collide.