Kindle Edition Amazon www.thefragilemistress.com Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: Hamilton Stone Editions ISBN-10:  0980178649 Pages: 210 Copyright: August, 2008 ISBN-13: 9780980178647 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Expanded version of the original "Edges" published by the late Grace Paley  The Fragile Mistress tells the story of a girl of fourteen brought abruptly from a comfortable suburban Westchester to the harsh terrain of a young State of Israel. The girl is caught in the maelstrom of political claims between Israel and a West Bank, still part of the Kingdom of Jordan. Skolkin-Smith's gift for identifying with both mother and daughter, Arab and Jew, gives the novel a unique sense of balance and brings the reader, regardless of political conviction, into sympathy with this portrait of a vanished Jerusalem.

-- Victoria Zackheim, anthology,
With EDGES, Leora Skolkin-Smith earns her place among the most gifted of contemporary American authors. The novel is a reminder that works of fiction can offer the depth, color, texture, passion of a fine painting and a great symphony. This is more than a coming-of-age story; it is a powerful and beautifully wrought account of passion and hope...for a girl and for a country." -- Victoria Zackheim, anthology, "For Keeps", "The Other Woman," writer, "The Bone Weaver"

Caroline Leavitt
Ms. Skoikin-Smith has captured the Mideast in this wonderful novel, a mesmerizing tale of a young girl in an ancient land, both, perhaps, coming of age.
I can't wait to see what she will do next.

amazon review
... does what the best literary novels do. It makes you think and feel and takes you into a world not your own. The novel explores the boundaries in our lives: between countries, between a mother and daughter, and between lovers. Exquisitely written and haunting