Be My Knife

''Impressive, extraordinary and exotic ... the finest novel to date by a writer who has been, for nearly two decades, one of the most original and talented not only in his own country but anywhere'' New York Times Book Review

''Extraordinary ... lust, frailty and fear are all laid bare ... the peeling away of lies and social restraints to disclose the naked soul is gripping'' Daily Mail

''We could be like two people who inject themselves with truth serum, and at long last have to tell it - the truth I want to be able to say to myself, "I bled truth with her," yes, that''s what I want. Be a knife for me, and I, I swear, will be a knife for you.''

An awkward, neurotic seller of rare books writes a desperate letter to a beautiful stranger whom he sees at a class reunion. This simple, lonely attempt at seduction begins a love affair of words between Yair and Miriam, two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, yearning for the connection that has always eluded them - and, eventually, reawakened to feelings that they thought had passed them by.

Their correspondence unfolds into an exchange of their most naked confessions: of desire, childhood tragedies, joys, and humiliations. Through the dialogue between Yair - a family man and surprisingly successful adulterer, whose guarded letters reveal a life of duplicity - and Miriam, at first deceptively open and warm, who fills her life with distraction to avoid a past full of painful secrets, BE MY KNIFE explores the nature and the limits of intimacy.