Womb of Diamonds

Book excerpt: In the 1930's Jewish Community of Aleppo, Syria, thirteen-year-old Lucie lives and works beside Muslims, Armenian Christians, and the French military. She fondly relates how chickpeas were used instead of wedding invitations, where their pistachios were dried, indiscreet tales of the bathhouse, the magical properties of the souk, and the tests for her marriage value involving goats and other barometers. When she gets forced into an engagement with a 29 year-old man, she has to decide between family duty and continued poverty. But this true story is not about a victim. Upon her move to Japan in 1936, Lucie is immersed in a new culture and a dynamic international trading business. With the arrival of World War Two, everything she has built is threatened by American bombs, clever spies, Nazi sympathizers, food shortages, and snakes. Lucie finally puts the funny, dramatic stories that she has shared with millions of Japanese people in writing, so we can all benefit from her life experience and learn a little business along the way. In these pages discover... How to efficiently remove the bugs from rationed rice. How "roasting a chicken in its own fat" can help in property management. Why pregnant women with food cravings shouldn't scratch an itch. How to run a profitable black market enterprise. How only a woman can really appreciate an 8 millimeter pearl. How expats honorably left their cheating spouses or untangled friends from difficult relationships. The real reason many young bachelors were sent to Japan to "learn the business."