A love story as implausible as this must be true. Their first date was arranged by a professional matchmaker. A deal, a pragmatic matter that had nothing to do with romance - that's how it all began. Not long after the engagement was settled, Gabriel was sent to war. The year was 1914. Like Penelope and her Odysseus, Fanny waited for him. This was just the beginning of a romance spanning seven decades of passion and rage, desire and contempt, estrangement and attraction. This love story, set against a backdrop of the major historical events of the twentieth century, is also the story of the era's biggest Jewish dilemma: the choice between the promise of life in America and a new Jewish state in Palestine. While Fanny and Gabriel find themselves on opposite sides of this conflict, fate reun