Her Body Knows - by David Grossman (Paperback)

About the Book

David Grossman is the author of several novels, including Someone to Run With (2004); the works of journalism, The Yellow Wind (1988) and Sleeping on a Wire (1993); and a volume of collected commentary, Death as a Way of Life (2003). He lives in Jerusalem.

Book Synopsis

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

In Her Body Knows, a fevered storyteller and a captive audience revisit the past together in each of David Grossman's novellas, trying to make sense of a betrayal that neither one can put to rest.

In "Frenzy," reserved, respectable Shaul lets his sister-in-law, Esti, into a secret nightmare, as he reveals to her his conviction that his wife is having an affair. Along with Esti, we find ourselves trapped in his paranoia and desperation as we accompany the odd pair down Israel's highways on a journey that reveals a passion perverted by jealousy and self-loathing.

In the title story, a successful but embittered novelist visits her mother, who is in the last stages of cancer. Grossman investigates the powers of storytelling to harm and heal as the daughter reads aloud her own imagined, merciless account of her mother's love affair with a much younger teenage boy. Gradually it becomes clear that, for all its anger, the daughter's story and the writing process itself have led her to a new appreciation of her mother's difficult character, and her own.

Studies in obsession, claustrophobia, and the need to confess, these two novellas mark a new departure from "a writer who has been, for nearly two decades, the one of the most original and talented ... anywhere." (The New York Times Book Review).

Review Quotes

"Grossman's description is deeply erotic, bristling with physical detail. His sentences are dizzying, intoxicating, and Jessica Cohen's translation captures their intricate intensity. . . . He writes of marriage and desire, jealousy and motherhood, loyalty and betrayal, and all the while he is mapping an entire country's anxieties and longings." --Tova Mirvis, The New York Times Book Review

"Intense and engaging . . . vastly compelling . . . Grossman's work is graced with dynamic, flawed, and utterly believable characters and masterful internal and external dialogues. Deeply moving and beautifully written, this book is highly recommended." --Library Journal

"Grossman is a talented writer---elegant, even luxurious. . . . His writing is achingly sensual, the humor sly . . . the language is always lush and generous. . . . Her Body Knows should win him a wider audience." --The Washington Post

"Grossman effects a psychological intensity that leaves one breathless." --The Miami Herald

"Riveting and heart wrenching . . . reverberate[s] long after the final word has been read." --O, The Oprah Magazine

"So powerful is Grossman's storytelling, that it takes the reader's breath away." --Chicago Jewish Star

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.