Rena Lee

Ports of Recall: Literary Novel Memomoires Inspired Rena Lee

Publisher Marketing: Ports of Recall is a sweeping and richly detailed work of literary fiction that carries readers from the politically fraught city of Jerusalem in the mid-twentieth century, to the lush gardens of Kenya in the late 1960s, and to the bustle of New York City's streets at the turn of the twenty-first century. Lily Katz long ago left her native Israel for Manhattan, where she has been living more or less comfortably with her husband, Adam, for decades. The turbulence of the past is far behind her, her memories of political turmoil, troubled relationships, and illicit passion firmly tucked away, just like the old, half-finished memoir under lock and key in her desk drawer-or so she believes. But when an unexpected message arrives from Kenya, where she and Adam lived briefly with their children before coming to the United States, Lily's carefully cultivated serenity is thrown into upheaval. The sudden call from the past plunges Lily into a flood of memories that threatens to unmoor her. She remembers Israeli loved ones lost to illness, suicide, and war; the surreal experience of following Israel's Six-Day War from a bucolic Kenyan village; and, most painful of all, a passionate affair forsaken when her family left Kenya for America-a love that hasn't crossed her lips since she left it behind thirty years ago. Lily's inner journey into the past seems to call into question her entire life since she left Kenya and settled in New York. Yet the journey proves liberating, prompting Lily to disinter that half-finished memoir and turn her hand to it once again, and schooling her in the ultimate great art of reconciliation. Based in part on the life of the author, Ports of Recall is a moving story of love and guilt, of secrets unburied, and of the triumph of the imagination over the ravages of time. It's is a story of love and guilt; it juxtaposes the self with the 'other', and probes the nature of human existence in general. Magically, it transforms the almost cliched recognizable beasts of the African jungle into those of the mind and soul. Beneath a domestic veneer of civility and manners, Ports of Recall exposes the true naked jungle of the heart." Contributor Bio:  Lee, Rena Rena Lee is Senior State Counsel with the International Affairs Division of the Attorney-General's Chambers in Singapore. She covers a range of issues in various areas of international law, including law of the sea, boundary delimitation, human rights, climate change and privileges and immunities. Rena has been part of Singapore's delegation in several fora, both multilateral and bilateral, including the UN and ASEAN.