Be My Knife - by David Grossman (Paperback)

About the Book

A love affair in words between two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, begins and leads them to yearn for the connection that has always eluded them. "Exquisite . . . and piercingly sad."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review."

Book Synopsis

The international bestseller Be My Knife is a compelling love story from David Grossman, the leading Israeli novelist of his generation

"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 complex, guarded letters reveal a life of secrets kept from the people closest to him--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.

A deep departure from David Grossman's previous work, Be My Knife is his subtlest, most passionate novel yet.

Review Quotes

"A transformative work of art...As the love affair moves toward its denouement certain passages demand to be reread, as if one can't believe the pure, intuitive truth they contain." --The New York Times Book Review

"Be My Knife may be the strangest, saddest love story ever told...exciting...exquisite [and] piercingly sad." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A beautiful and searing book...Grossman's prose is bewitching....Be My Knife starts as a slow, lyrical work, then draws the reader into Yair and Miriam's compulsions. For Grossman, love is as an obsession, a consuming and searing mirage, where lovers reveal what is raw and painful." --The Denver Post

About the Author

David Grossman has received several international awards for his writing, including the Premio Grinzane and the Premio Mondelo for The Zigzag Kid. He is the author of several novels, including A Horse Walks into a Bar, The Book of Intimate Grammar, as well as children's books, and a play. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children.