Hebrew Literature – serie

Emil, the unwanted child of two young parents, is adopted by Yoel and Leah, a childless couple. Yet, as the years pass, it becomes clear that Emil doesn't bear much resemblance to the parents who've loved and raised him. Is his name the only thing his real parents have left him? Kin traces the movements of Emil and his four parents as they walk through the same city, nearby but apart, searching for each other in the faces of passersby; until Yoel, now old, becomes determined to do the impossible: return his grown son--a lonely man approaching middle age--to his birth parents. In prose that is both minimal and subtly off kilter, acclaimed Israeli novelist Dror Burstein introduces us to an Israel that is as peculiar, and poignant, as Donald Barthelme's America: ranging from an apocalyptic future to the petty annoyances of daily life, from shifting continents to tiny heartbreaks.

This volume collects two macabre novellas by one of Israel's greatest authors: "The Death of Lysanda," which tells the story of a taxidermist heading steadily into insanity, and "Ants," about an invasion of household insects forcing a doomed marriage into crisis.

The hilarious second novel from actress and bestselling novelist Alona Kimhi holds up a comically warped mirror to contemporary Israel, as well as the very notion of "chick lit."