Haviva PedayaAn environmentally sensitive narrative, set in the desert city of
Beersheva.
On the edge of the Turkish-era old city, Haviva Pedaya lives in a house
surrounded by feral cats, the heroes of her innovative book. And next
to them, human beings who live on the margins of society - eccentric
animal lovers, homeless people, drug addicts, illegal migrants, lunatics
and others. Pedaya scrutinizes both groups with compassion as they move
together in the urban space looking for food. And through them, she
offers a critique of urbanism and grieves over the erasure of nature in
modern times. For these cats, the representatives of untamed nature, are
hounded by the city which makes them outsiders in their own habitat.
Pedaya moves seamlessly between various styles, from fiction to
the language of reference books, and from philosophy to Kabbala and
Jewish thought, to express her desire to break away from history and
give precedence to myth. Alongside wonderful realistic descriptions of
the city, its homeless, and the feral cats roaming the streets, she spins a
mystical web about the meaning of exile and the other mission of the Jews
in the world.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILABLE (for publishers only).
One of the cleverest books
written in the past few years. And
it is local in the most complex
sense.
Haaretz
A highly surprising and original
book. A profound indictment of
modernity.
Maariv-NRG
One of the most beautiful books
I have read in recent years.
Yedioth Ahronoth
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