ABÉCASSIS, ELIETTE

ABÉCASSIS, ELIETTE (1969– ), French writer. Born in Strasbourg to a Sephardi family of Moroccan origin, Eliette is the daughter of French thinker Armand Abécassis, author of La pensée juive. Deeply imbued with the religious atmosphere of her childhood, Eliette Abécassis, after completeing her studies in philosophy and literature at the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, published her first novel in 1996. Qumran, a metaphysical and archaeological thriller, whose hero is a young Orthodox Jew and whose plot revolves around the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, was an instant bestseller. Her next two books were centered on the theme of evil and its contagion: L'or et la cendre (1997), a novel, and "Petite métaphysique du meurtre" (1998), an essay. To write the screenplay for Amos Gitai's Franco-Israeli film Kaddosh, Abécassis immersed herself for six months in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Me'ah She'arim, an experience which,   in addition to the screenplay, provided her with the plot of a novel, La repudiée (2000). She also directed a short film, La nuit de noces (2001). (Dror Franck Sullaper (2nd ed.)