Description:
Melanie Markowitz has come to Israel to take a look around. And the first person she meets tells her - no shouts at her - that there's no charge for looking. Nevertheless, in emotional terms, looking turns out to be pretty expensive. In a matter of days Melanie becomes disputed territory with two lovers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, advancing confident claims to her company, her conversation, her body, and what they can seize of her soul.
This high-spirited tale of the adventures of a female innocent abroad is very funny, oddly touching, and most astute in its observations on the international comedy of manners. And while presenting a witty chronicle of Melanie's sufferings as the no-man's-land of two impassioned admirers, it says things that are far from trivial about life in Israel and life in general.
The book is a love letter to Israelis, to Palestinians, and to the crazy unpredictable people there who are often wonderful, in spite of their governments.
Brief description: Esther Cohen is a longtime admirer of the people, culture, food, music, warmth, humor, and unexpectedness of the Middle East. She has traveled extensively around the region, and written as much as possible about all that she loves there.
Review Quotes:
"Rare is the novelist who tells a fair and funny story about Arabs and Jews."
Newsday
"This evocative, seriocomic first novel....shows aspects of Israel one doesn't read about in the newspapers and few tourists see."
Publisher's Weekly
"The delightful tale of a young feminists's odyssey to Nazareth, feeds us insight into the Arab and Israeli way of life that so many American travelers miss.... Not only is this novel insightful, it's also light-hearted and humorous."
San Francisco Chronicle
"One is tempted to define Ms. Cohen's novel in terms of the "daringness" of its subject - an American Jewish feminist trying to deal with Jewish as well as Arab men in Israel - but the truth is that the charm and interest lie in its casual plain-spoken quality, and in the attractiveness and ideas of her characters."
Michael Arlen