Desire and tragedy upset the lives of an Israeli family in this “thrilling, fresh, and surprising” debut novel from the award-winning filmmaker (ForeWord Review).
 
On the shores of Israel’s Sea of Galilee lies the city of Tiberias. In the years between the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars, it is a place bursting with desire and longing for love. As young Shlomi develops a remarkable culinary talent, he also falls for Ella, the strange neighbor and deeply troubled new neighbor. Meanwhile, Shlomi’s little brother Hilik obsessively collects words in a notebook. In the wild, selfish but magical grown-up world that swirls around them, a mother with a poet’s soul mourns the deaths of literary giants while her handsome husband cheats on her both at home and abroad.
 
In filmmaker Shemi Zarhin’s dazzling debut novel, hypnotic writing renders a painfully delicious vision of individual lives behind Israel’s larger national story.
 
“Ardent, salty, whimsical, steamy, absurd . . . A wallop to the reader.” ―Ploughshares
 
“Masterful . . . haunting . . . sublime . . . Zarhin’s characters are so real they fairly jump off the page.” ―The Jerusalem Post