The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

I am not a religious person and when someone first recommended this book, I'll admit I was skeptical. But despite the fact that this is based on characters from the bible, the story itself is only loosely related to the ones in the Old Testament. This is the story of Jacob and Leah's daughter, Dinah, who is only briefly mentioned in Genesis. Dinah tells us her story, in her own words, and begins with her childhood in Mesopotamia, where she was raised by her four mothers - Leah, her birth mother, and Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah, the additional wives of Jacob. The title of this book, The Red Tent, is based on the place where women gathered during menstruation, birth and illness and where young Dinah is first initiated into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Her story continues through her doomed relationship with Shalem and her later life in Egypt and Canaan, where she becomes a well known and often requested midwife. As I said before, this is loosely based on the stories of Jacob in the Bible, but you do not need to be religious in order to enjoy this story, the characters are that memorable.