Josiane Behmoiras

Josiane Behmoiras was born in Paris and migrated to Israel in 1961 with her mother. She left school at 15 and worked in a diamond factory to support them both. She later studied painting and cinema, before directing documentaries with Israeli Television. She migrated to Australia in 1985, where she held a range of unskilled jobs before moving into textile and fashion design.

Josiane started writing in English in the late nineties, while working as a cleaning lady. In 2004 she completed an MA in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. This became her first book, Dora B, a memoir of her mother.

Josiane lives in Melbourne.

Books by Josiane Behmoiras

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  My Mother was a Bag Lady

  When Dora and her eight-year-old daughter Josiane are arrested in France, they do not have the one franc coin that the law requires to prove they are not vagrants. To the authorities, the solution is simple. They are penniless, unwanted, itinerant and Jewish: they must be shipped to The Promised Land.

  But this fresh start in Israel comes at a price. Dora's hostile neighbours are soon persecuting her openly for her foreignness and eccentricity. As she tries to make their tiny asbestos hut a home, their few possessions begin to disappear. Ostracised from their community, Dora and her daughter face the world together. But soon, Josiane must come to terms with the truth about her mother: she is losing her grip on reality.

  Full of warmth, humour and heartbreak, My Mother was a Bag Lady is a portrait of an inspiring and unusual woman and a testament to – a mother's selfless love.

  My Mother was a Bag Lady was originally published as Dora B in hardback in 2005 in Australia and the UK.

  Details