About this item
Highlights
- From one of the most important voices in contemporary Hebrew literature, the gripping story of a reunion between two family members that brings back a long-forgotten past and reveals secrets that will change their lives forever.Micha, an Israeli expat in Los Angeles working as a ghostwriter, receives an unexpected invitation.
- Author(s): Savyon Liebrecht
- 160 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Short Stories (single author)
Description
About the Book
Micha, an Israeli expat in Los Angeles working as a ghostwriter, receives an unexpected invitation. Adella, married to his beloved uncle, has bought him a ticket to Israel and booked a boutique hotel, so that he can return home and meet with her. Years before, Micha was the bridesman at Adella's wedding. He remembers her as a rebellious young woman, and orphan and an outsider, who was mocked by his close-knit family of Persian Jews. Micha is stunned by the Adella of today-poised, confident, with nothing of the uneasy woman he remembers from the past. When finally Adella reveals the true story of her life, powerful memories resurface in Micha, although nothing can prepare him for the surprise she has in store for him ...Book Synopsis
From one of the most important voices in contemporary Hebrew literature, the gripping story of a reunion between two family members that brings back a long-forgotten past and reveals secrets that will change their lives forever.
Micha, an Israeli expat in Los Angeles working as a ghostwriter, receives an unexpected invitation. Adella, married to his beloved uncle, has bought him a ticket to Israel and booked a boutique hotel, so that he can return home and meet with her.
Years before, Micha was the bridesman at Adella's wedding. He remembers her as a rebellious young woman, and orphan and an outsider, who was mocked by his close-knit family of Persian Jews. Micha is stunned by the Adella of today-poised, confident, with nothing of the uneasy woman he remembers from the past. When finally Adella reveals the true story of her life, powerful memories resurface in Micha, although nothing can prepare him for the surprise she has in store for him...
The Bridesman presents a beguiling cast of characters, whose stories are interwoven into a gripping and moving tale about family, place, and the unceasing power of the past to reshape our lives and identity.
Review Quotes
Finalist for Hebrew literature in translation for National Jewish Book Award
"With subtlety and grace, Liebrecht depicts how her characters fashion the narratives of their lives out of experiences they don't understand. This wisp of a story somehow leaves readers with plenty to chew on."--Publishers Weekly
"[The Bridesman] haunted me."--Elisa Shoenberger, Book Riot
"A unique story that portrays a Persian Jewish family that arrived in Israel in 1950, caught between the traditions of the old country and the secular possibilities of the new one, The Bridesman is also nevertheless universal in its portrayal of the layers and complexities of families."--Susan Blumberg-Kason, Asian Review of Books
"A novel about the price of finding one's own place in the world."--Foreword Reviews
"The prose is clean and smooth...This slim novel invites us to question the narratives we know."--Kirkus Reviews
"Savyon Liebrecht's The Bridesman is a masterfully crafted short novel..."--Association of Jewish Libraries
"The Bridesman is full of revelations and upheavals...there is never a dull moment."--Haaretz
"The Bridesman is an expertly carved miniature, a piece of delicate embroidery that floods the heart, chamber by chamber."--Maariv
"A mesmerizing encounter between characters, between past and present, between literature and life."--The Good Life Magazine