Bridges Across the World

Book: Bridges Across the World

Author: Rachel Pomerantz

Publisher: Mekor (imprint of Menucha Publishers)

The book in two lines

A fast-paced drama that moves across the United States and to India and Japan, raising questions about family ties, loyalty, and identity. It intertwines the fates of several families as familiar characters face their challenges alongside new ones.

The author in two lines

Rachel Pomerantz is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and former Dean of Exact Sciences at an Israeli university, and in her free time, a novelist. Her fans have been following her characters, Meir, Beth, Chaim, and Barbara, through several novels over three decades.

What’s fresh about Bridges Across the World?

It’s actually the third book in a trilogy: Bells and Pomegranates, the first one, was about communication within the frum community, Orange Groves was about communication between different sectors of Israeli society, and Bridges is about communication between Jews and non-Jews. Once I’d created this non-Jewish family for my Jewish characters to communicate with, I found it an interesting challenge to give them some problems of universal relevance to deal with: a child who steals, a woman exercising authority in the workplace, a conflict between a father-in-law and a son-in-law. It was refreshing to write about these issues and not have to worry about reflecting badly on the Orthodox community. I could give the problems more bite…

Why did you decide to reuse your old characters? Is that easier or harder than working with a new cast created from scratch?

Each of my main characters was invented to address some crisis or fault of my own. I usually solved the current problem by the end of the book, but then new crises would develop in time to produce a sequel. For example, Barbara in Wildflower got married and was initially childless. By the end of the book, she’d had a child and a foster child, but when the Gulf War came around, she was up to dealing with teenagers in Cactus Blossoms. I generally find it easier to use characters with a rich backstory already in place. I made an exception for the Covid novel I just finished writing, though. I wanted the characters to be frum from birth, not reach Orthodoxy after their own journeys, so I started over with new characters, which was sort of fun, too.