Pain

"Zeruya Shalev is one of my favorite contemporary writers, her work always spiky and original, and Pain is a searing book, a wild and ravenous story of family entanglement and impossible yearning." --Lauren Groff, author of Florida and Fates and Furies

A powerful, astute novel that exposes how old passions can return, testing our capacity to make choices about what is most essential in life.

Ten years after she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack, the pain comes back to torment Iris. But that is not all: Eitan, the love of her youth, also comes back into her life. Though their relationship ended many years ago, she was more deeply wounded when he left her than by the suicide bomber who blew himself up next to her.

Iris's marriage is stagnant. Her two children have grown up and are almost independent; she herself has become a dedicated, successful school principal. Now, after years without passion and joy, Eitan brings them back into her life. But she must concoct all sorts of lies to conceal her affair from her family, and the lies become more and more complicated.

Is this an impossible predicament, or on the contrary a scintillating revelation of the many ways life's twists and turns can bring us to a place we would never have expected to be?

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Other Press (NY)
Published: 11/05/2019
ISBN: 9781590510926
Pages: 368
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.10d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2019
Library Journal 10/01/2019 pg. 90
Publishers Weekly 09/30/2019
Booklist 10/15/2019 pg. 28
Foreword 10/26/2019
Shelf Awareness 01/03/2020