באהבה, נטליה

Natalia Himmelfarb is a painter and sculptor of great talent and no restraint. Starting soon after June 1967 and running until the late eighties, her letters go mostly to Ze'ev Rubin, the married man she loves, and to her best friend Leah. In them she holds nothing back: what she feels in secret and what happens to her openly, her husband Eli Malchi, a scholar of Dante tormented by demons she never fully understands, their two children, her art and its doubts and desires, and the local art world. Replies and letters about her come from Ze'ev and Leah and from other artists of the period. The correspondence charts two decades in which the country is transformed by three wars and by social and political upheaval, and asks what a person should choose: passion or security, devotion to art or to family, self-fulfilment or duty.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

260 pages in the original

Genres

Love, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Israel, 1967–late 1980s

First published

2005 by Keter

Author's age

69 when first published