(Fiction, 320 pp. Hebrew, 2018; English Translation, 2024)
Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. Ilana is a veteran Hebrew instructor at a Midwestern college who has built her life around her career. When a young Hebrew literature professor joins the faculty, she finds his post-Zionist politics a threat to her life’s work. Miriam, whose son left Israel to make his fortune in Silicon Valley, pays an unwanted visit to meet her new grandson and discovers cracks in the family’s perfect façade. Efrat, another Israeli in California, is determined to help her daughter navigate the challenges of middle school, and crosses forbidden lines when she follows her into the minefield of social media. In these three stirring novellas—comedies of manners with an ambitious blend of irony and sensitivity—celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront.
- Discussion Questions from publisher New Vessel Press
- Review by Allegra Goodman, Jewish Review of Books, Spring 2024
- Review by Erika Harlitz Kern, Foreword, March/April 2024
- Review by Abigail Klein Leichman, The Jerusalem Post, March 23, 2024
- Review by Carlin Romano, Moment Magazine, March 21, 2024
- Review by Ranen Omer-Sherman, Jewish Book Council, March 18, 2024
- Review by Robert Nagler Miller, Hadassah Magazine, March 2024
- Review by Publishers Weekly, January 12, 2024
- Review of the Hebrew edition by Adam Rovner, Curated: Thinking with Literature, Stanford University, September 18, 2020
- Interview with Maya Arad, j., March 19, 2024
- Interview with Maya Arad, Jewish Book Council, March 18, 2024
- Interview with with Maya Arad, The Jewish Telegraph Agency, March 10, 2024
- Synopsis, Excerpts, and Reviews courtesy of The Hebrew Teacher publisher New Vessel Press
