יתומים

Two novellas that reflect each other, set among families of North African origin on Israel's edges, where something unforeseen breaks into a quiet, regular life. In 'Orphans', set during the bombings of 2002, Shmuel tells how his wife Rachel spent two weeks curled up as if sedated on the sofa and then vanished one night without a word; his own part in her illness stays murky, while he tries to bond with their two young children and with the men of the North African ghetto he came from. In 'My Younger Brother Yehuda', a heavy, unathletic teenager has finished his final exams and drifts through the weeks before his call-up, hoping the army will turn him into a proper man, until his fifty-two-year-old mother announces that she is expecting a baby.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Short stories

Length

196 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

Israel

First published

2006 by Hakibbutz Hameuchad

Author's age

36 when first published