40 Fun Facts About The Red Tent

What sends the women of Jacob's camp into the title shelter of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent for three days?

Their monthly periods bring the women there to rest together, and they give birth there too. Diamant acknowledges no evidence that ancient Hebrews really used such a tent.

Dinah, the narrator of The Red Tent, has her story told in a single brief chapter of which book of the Bible?

Genesis tells Dinah's story in a single chapter, its thirty-fourth, and she never speaks a word in it. The novel hands the telling to her.

In The Red Tent, which calling does Dinah learn from her aunt Rachel and later practice in Egypt?

Midwifery, learned at the side of Rachel and the healer Inna, becomes Dinah's living in Egypt. A friend there spreads word of the gifted foreigner.

Which Swedish actress, later Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible, played Dinah in the miniseries The Red Tent?

Rebecca Ferguson played Dinah a year before her breakout as Ilsa Faust opposite Tom Cruise. She went on to play Lady Jessica in the Dune films.

In The Red Tent, as in the Bible, Dinah's brother Joseph rises from slavery to which high office in Egypt?

Vizier is the post Joseph holds, under an Egyptian name, when Dinah is summoned to his house. Only there does she learn who he is.

In The Red Tent, what price must every man in Shechem pay before Jacob's family will accept Dinah's marriage?

Circumcision is the price, and the men of Shechem pay it in good faith. While they lie in pain, the brothers slaughter them, as in the Bible.

In The Red Tent, as in the Bible, Rachel dies on the road giving birth to which last son of Jacob?

Benjamin is born on the road as the family flees after the Shechem killings, and Rachel does not survive. Dinah, already gone to Egypt, learns of it only later.

Jacob, Dinah's father in The Red Tent, is later given which new name in the Bible, now borne by a nation?

Israel is the name Jacob receives after wrestling a mysterious stranger through the night. His sons' descendants became the tribes that carried it.

The 2014 miniseries of The Red Tent recreated the biblical Near East by filming on location in which country?

Morocco stood in for Canaan and Egypt when production began in May 2014. The adaptation had been in development since 2011.

In the miniseries The Red Tent, what bloodied item do the brothers show Jacob as proof that Joseph is dead?

His coat, smeared with blood, convinces Jacob that his favorite son has been killed. In truth the brothers have sold Joseph into slavery.

In The Red Tent, Dinah's cousin Tabea, her first friend her own age, is a daughter of which man?

Esau, Jacob's twin, greets his long-estranged brother with an embrace rather than revenge. Dinah, raised among brothers, delights in meeting Tabea.

In The Red Tent, what does Rachel carry off from her father's house when the family leaves for Canaan?

His household gods go with Rachel, who wants her cruel father to suffer the loss. In the Bible she hides the figures under her camel seat.

Which American cable network, known for programming aimed at women, aired The Red Tent miniseries in December 2014?

Lifetime showed the adaptation over two nights, on December 7 and 8, as a pair of two-hour episodes.

Which Oscar-nominated Good Will Hunting actress played Leah, Dinah's mother, in the miniseries The Red Tent?

Minnie Driver played Leah, the capable first wife who runs Jacob's camp. Her Oscar nomination came for playing Skylar opposite Matt Damon.

Which Scottish actor, Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones, played the patriarch Jacob in the miniseries The Red Tent?

Iain Glen played Jacob during his long run as the exiled knight Jorah Mormont. He is also the villain Dr. Isaacs in the Resident Evil films.

In The Red Tent, Dinah follows a friend to which famous Egyptian site, where she marries the craftsman Benia?

The Valley of the Kings is where pharaohs' rock-cut tombs were dug for nearly 500 years. Dinah spends her happiest years there with Benia.

Which two of Dinah's brothers lead the slaughter of the men of Shechem in The Red Tent, as in the Bible?

Simon and Levi lead the killing, calling Dinah's marriage a defilement. She curses her father's whole house and walks away for good.

In The Red Tent, the gentle Benia, who becomes Dinah's second husband in Egypt, works at which trade?

Carpenter Benia and Dinah are drawn to each other at once, yet three years pass before they meet again and marry.

After the massacre at Shechem in The Red Tent, who takes the grieving, pregnant Dinah away to Egypt?

Queen Re-nefer, mother of the murdered prince, is Egyptian-born and heads back to her homeland. She wants Dinah's child raised there as a prince.

After slow early sales of The Red Tent, Anita Diamant urged her publisher to give leftover copies to whom?

Female rabbis received the spare copies, and clergy went on to praise the novel from the pulpit. Word of mouth made it a bestseller with no advertising budget.

In The Red Tent, Jacob's lesser wives are half-sisters of Leah and Rachel, all four fathered by which man?

Laban fathers the two handmaids by slave women in the novel, as one early commentary also held. The Bible itself calls them only maidservants.

Which of Dinah's four mothers in The Red Tent is the eccentric, spiritual one who bears the twins Gad and Asher?

Zilpah has little use for men, and after the hard birth of her twins she tells Jacob she will never lie with him again.

The Bible calls Dinah's prince Shechem, like his city; what name does Anita Diamant give him in The Red Tent?

Shalem is a prince Dinah truly loves and marries willingly in the novel, a reversal of the Bible's account of an assault.

In The Red Tent, what unusual feature of Leah's face makes many people afraid to meet her gaze?

Eyes of two colors, one blue and one green, unsettle nearly everyone but Jacob. The Bible says only that Leah had tender eyes.

Which Brazilian-born actress, known from Firefly and Homeland, played Rachel in the miniseries The Red Tent?

Morena Baccarin played Rachel, the cousin Jacob loves at first sight. She went on to play Vanessa in the Deadpool films.

Which star of An Officer and a Gentleman played Jacob's proud mother in the 2014 miniseries The Red Tent?

Debra Winger played the matriarch, whom the young Dinah finds testy and harsh. Winger has three Best Actress Oscar nominations.

Before turning to fiction with The Red Tent, Anita Diamant spent two decades working in which profession?

Journalist was her trade from 1975, writing for magazines including Parenting, Yankee and Ms. The novel was her debut as a fiction writer.

Which later novel by Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent, follows Addie Baum, born in 1900 to immigrant parents?

The Boston Girl appeared in 2014 and became a New York Times bestseller. Addie's parents distrust America and its effect on their three daughters.

Jacob, the father whose camp fills The Red Tent, is the grandson of which biblical figure?

Abraham and Sarah are Jacob's grandparents through his father Isaac. In the novel, Dinah hears the lore of her father's family from Joseph.

In The Red Tent, Jacob disowns which eldest son after finding him in bed with Bilhah?

Reuben, Leah's firstborn, is cast out, and Jacob strikes Bilhah. In the Bible, the affair costs him the birthright of an eldest son.

In The Red Tent, Dinah's formidable grandmother, who holds court in grand tents at Mamre, serves in which sacred role?

An oracle is what the novel makes of her, robed in purple and wearing a headpiece threaded with gold. Dinah comes to hate her after she casts out Tabea.

Which talkative Egyptian woman becomes Dinah's closest friend and a mother figure to her in The Red Tent?

Meryt admires Dinah's knowledge of herbs and healing and spreads word of the gifted foreigner. When she moves away, she takes Dinah with her.

On the journey to Canaan in The Red Tent, the healer Inna says Dinah will only be happy living near what?

Water fascinates Dinah at the first great river she sees, where she is nearly submerged as the camp crosses. Inna calls her a water child.

At Jacob's deathbed gathering in The Red Tent, a child named Gera unknowingly tells Dinah what?

Her own life story reaches Dinah from a niece who has no idea who she is. Forgotten by her brothers, she learns the women of the family still remember her.

In The Red Tent, Dinah's grandfather sells his wife Ruti into slavery to settle what?

Gambling debts drive the sale, and Ruti begs Leah for help. Jacob pays what is owed to free her, then starts planning to leave for good.

In which ancient town, in what is now Turkey, do Dinah's mothers grow up at the start of The Red Tent?

Haran is the home of Jacob's uncle, where his mother sends him to escape a brother's anger. He stays for years and marries there.

In The Red Tent, what name is given to Dinah's only son, who is raised as a prince of Egypt?

Re-mose is close to Dinah as a small boy, then grows ambitious and has little time for his foreign-born mother. They part for good after he threatens Joseph.

Anita Diamant's first book, published twelve years before The Red Tent, was a modern guide to what?

A Jewish wedding was her subject in 1985, soon after her own marriage. Guides to welcoming a baby and to mourning followed.

Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent, is founding president of Mayyim Hayyim, which is what kind of place?

A ritual bath, or mikveh, is a pool for sacred immersion. Diamant helped open hers in Newton, Massachusetts, after finding existing ones a poor welcome for converts such as her husband.

In The Red Tent, as in the Bible, which ruler of Shechem is the father of the prince Dinah marries?

Hamor offers to pay any bride price that Jacob's family cares to name. He dies with his son in the massacre.