Esther David

About Esther David

Esther David has received the Sahitya Akademi Award and is the author of The Walled City, East West Books 1997 and Westland Books, 2009; By The Sabarmati, Penguin Inda, 2000; Book Of Esther, Penguin Viking, 2002; Book Of Rachel, Penguin Viking, 2006; My Father’s Zoo, Rupa, 2007; Shalom India Housing Society, Women Unlimited, 2007; The Man With Enormous Wings, Penguin India, 2010; Ahmedabad: City With A Past, HarperCollins India, 2016.Known as an Indian-Jewish author, she writes about the Jewish ethos in India. Her novels have been translated into French, Gujarati, Marathi and researched by scholars from India and abroad. She edited an anthology of Earthquake Stories in Gujarati and co-authored a chapter on Jewish costumes for India’s Jewish, Heritage, Ritual, Art And Life-Cycle. She has received the Hadassah Brandeis Research Award to document the Jews of Gujarat.Trained as an artist in Vadodara, she illustrates her novels, and has taught sculpture, art history and art appreciation at design institutions of Ahmedabad. She was chairperson, Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi and has worked in the area of Outsider Art for many years. She was art critic and columnist for Times of India and Ahmedabad Mirror, where she wrote about art, food and city-centric issues.