צילה

After the Odessa pogrom of 1905, in which she loses an eye and Lazar shows himself powerless, young Tsila marries him, convinced that one kiss has sealed her fate. In Palestine the family keeps moving, from Jaffa to Beersheba, Gedera, Gaza and Tel Aviv, and for a quarter of a century she shares her household with both her husband and Hanan, a man nine years her junior who raises and largely provides for her five children. The timid bride grows into a commanding matriarch, founder of a line of formidable women. Her notebooks of memories go unread for decades, until her great-granddaughter, the author herself, opens them alongside Hanan's private diary and steps into the four-generation story.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

509 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Historical, Autofiction (assigned by AI)

Set in

Ukraine, Israel, 1905–2000s

First published

2013 by Hakibbutz Hameuchad / Siman Kriah

Author's age

50 when first published