Book details
The One Facing Us
A Novel
Author: Ronit Matalon; Translated by Marsha Weinstein
The One Facing Us
$11.99
About This Book
Book Details
A richly colored narrative of a flamboyant Jewish-Egyptian family and its dispersal across three continents, from Israel's most original new novelist.
Esther, seventeen years old, wild and rebellious, is sent from Israel to Cameroon to stay with her hardheaded Uncle Sicourelle, who is charged with straightening her out. But Esther resists her uncle's plans for her future--which include marriage to a cousin--and in the privileged indolence of postcolonial Africa, she looks to the past instead. Using sepia portraits and scraps of letters, Esther pieces together the history of her family, a once-grand Egyptian-Jewish clan, and its displacement from Cairo in the 1950s to Israel, Africa, and New York.
As the worn photographs yield their secrets, Esther uncovers a rich tale of wives and ex-wives; revolving mistresses and crushing marriages; desperate intrigues and disappointments; poignant contrasts between the living past and the dead present. In sensuous, inventive prose, Matalon penetrates the mysteries of cultural exile and family life to produce a first novel that is mature, authentic, and finely polished.
Imprint Publisher
Metropolitan Books
ISBN
9781466845763
In The News
“Ronit Matalon's is a refreshingly daring, intelligent, complex voice. In a word, superb.” —Anton Shammas
“Few books have impressed me as much: wonderful, sensitive, and sensual.” —A. B. Yehoshua