Description
Book SynopsisA writer of revelatory genius' Guardian
Following the bizarre accidental death of his wife, Israeli secret service agent Yoel Ravid retires to the suburbs with his daughter, mother and mother-in-law.
After a lifetime of uncovering other people''s secrets he is forced to look back at the lies he has told himself; at the desolate enigma of his wife''s life and death; his years of service to the state and the riddle of his daughter''s behaviour.
Humorous, melancholy and touching' New York Times
Trade ReviewMr. Oz demonstrates his usual fluency as a writer. His portraits of Yoel, his mother, his mother-in-law and his daughter are, at once, humorous, melancholy and touching. -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
This is a book full of hints and echoes, from the past, from literature, from Yoel's former life. It is a remarkable novel, on the one hand a reminder of fiction's capacity to push at the boundaries of the expressible and on the other a meticulous account of one particular character's advance towards wisdom * Daily Telegraph *
A writer of extraordinary perception and of a warm humanity, which never slides into sentimentality and never dodges judgement. His dialogue shines with life and he evokes the feel of the physical world, the shimmer of light in the dawn or at evening, wonderfully well. The result is a book, which not only has a firm moral structure, one which poses and explores fundamental questions of human nature and of obligation, but also sparkles with vividly realised renderings of the details of daily life. It is very good indeed * Scotsman *
