(Fiction, 264 pp., 2012; English translation, 2017)
As they do every year, Yosef Zinman, a well-to-do Tel Aviv grocer, and his beloved wife Zippi plan a vacation during the holiday of Sukkot to Seefeld in the mountainous Tirols region of Austria. This year, more and more relatives join in on the trip, and the expenses quickly begin to add up. To gather all the funds needed, the family goes into the business of inexpensive clothing and fashion shows for workers’ unions. The summer promises handsome revenues, but as the Zinman family nears their goal, they become increasingly vexed by their competing interests. Pinkus’s biting critique of Tel Aviv’s provincial character and its residents’ shtetl mentality is delivered with a perfect combination of wit, humor, and tender pathos.
Review by Ranen Omer-Sherman, Jewish Book Council, November 9, 2017
Review by David Cooper, New York Review of Books, February 2018
Review by the Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature, 2012
Review by Steve Wenick, The Times of Israel, July 28, 2020
Review by Omri Herzog, Ha’aretz, August 13, 2012
