Through the Looking Glass

A few weeks ago I stood by the tomb of Abraham in Hebron hearing the recitation of the amidah, the rhythm of those familiar words of prayer suddenly accompanied by those of a Jewish poet that came to my mind in that moment. I felt moved and connected in ways I had not foreseen. The last time I was in that part of the world I was in my gap year, an eighteen year old enjoying the life of a secular kibbutznik before heading on to Oxford. This time I had arrived at Hebron after a very different journey, one that took me both deeply in to my Jewish culture and showed it to me from the other side of the mirror, so to speak, challenging many of my previous assumptions.Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Adam Foulds lives in London. He is the author of two novels and a narrative poem. He was named the Sunday Times Young Writer Of The Year in 2008, and has won the Costa Poetry Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the 2009 South Bank Show Literature Award. His recent novel, The Quickening Maze, was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.