The Remains of Love: A Novel - Hardcover

Shalev, Zeruya

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1608199541 ISBN 13: 9781608199549

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2013

Synopsis

Hemda Horovitz is nearing the end of her life. As she lies in bed in Jerusalem, memories from the past flood her thoughts: her childhood in the kibbutz spent under the gaze of her stern, pioneer father; the lake that was her only solace; and her own two children-one she could never love enough, and the other whom she loved too much.

Avner, the beloved child, has grown up to be a heavy, anguished man, disillusioned by his work and trapped in a loveless marriage. When visiting his mother in the hospital, he witnesses a devoted couple's final moments together; after the man's death Avner becomes obsessed with finding the woman, and a strange and delicate relationship unfolds.

Dina, Hemda's daughter, has put aside her career in order to give her teenage daughter, Nitzan, the warmth she never received from her own mother. But Nitzan is withdrawing from her, and Dina is overcome by a longing to adopt another child-a longing that, if fulfilled, may destroy her fragile family.

Zeruya Shalev's electrifying new novel is at once a meditation on the state of modern Israel and a profound exploration of family, yearning, compromise, and the insistent pull of the past.

About this title

About the Author:

Zeruya Shalev was born at Kibbutz Kinneret. She is the author of three previous novels, Love Life, Husband and Wife, and Thera; a book of poetry; and a children's book. Her work is critically acclaimed and internationally bestselling. Shalev has been awarded the Book Publishers Association's Gold and Platinum Prizes four times, the Corine International Book Prize (Germany, 2001), the Amphi Award (France, 2003), the ACUM Prize twice (1997, 2005), the French Wizo Prize (2007), the prestigious Welt-Literature Award (2012) and The Remains of Love is a finalist of the Bottary Lattes Grinzane Prize (Italy, 2013). Husband and Wife was also nominated for the Femina Prize (France, 2002). A feature film of Love Life, produced in Germany, was released in 2008. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages. She lives in Jerusalem.

Philip Simpson's Hebrew to English translations include The Lover by A. B. Yehoshua and Where the Jackals Howl by Amos Oz. He lives in Norfolk, England.

Review:

This outstanding Israeli novel breaks taboos and tells tough truths about the ties that bind ... a hypnotic study of an Israeli family by a novelist of immense talent * Independent * Searing, intense, provocative, The Remains of Love throws open every closed chamber in the human heart. There is no place that Zeruya Shalev is afraid to go * Nicole Krauss * Hypnotic rhythm ... An acute and profound statement ... One of the most powerful novels I have read in recent years * Amos Oz * These days, I am hypnotized by Zeruya Shalev's new book, The Remains of Love. Shalev's gift lies in her extraordinary ability to reach inside a person, psychologically and intuitively, from birth on throughout his or her life. She understands a person's innermost soul and can turn it into a story * President Shimon Peres,Yediot Aharonot * Her novels are all intensely drawn pictures of intimate relationships, the rhythms and disturbances of life in Israel are irresistibly present ... A devastating experience can only have sharpened the intensity of her writing -- Gerald Jacobs * Jewish Chronicle * Beautifully realised death ... Shalev boldly articulates a dying mother's mixed emotions for her own children. Philip Simpson's translation proves well-judged and unobtrusive * Independent *

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1608199541
• ISBN 13: 9781608199549
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432