סמאדר

All summer Smadar, a girl on the cusp of adolescence, stays inside. She roams the old house from room to room and window to window, watching the blazing, menacing streets of the neighbourhood, and takes in everything that reaches her: sounds, shifting light, the way people move, what they wear, how things smell and taste, and most of all what they say. Her mind turns this imposed world into odd ideas, spiteful thoughts, liquid daydreams and finally a sexual experience that is violent and alluring at once. Under the surface of family life and growing up, the novella magnifies the quakes of her inner life as she is carried, without choice, towards womanhood.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novella

Length

149 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Israel

First published

2017 by Babel

Author's age

47 when first published