A Strange Woman

What links Mali, a prominent Tel Aviv attorney, to Slava, an illegal Ukrainian worker who cleans her house? On the surface, nothing. But Avirama Golan’s novel reveals surprising similarities between the two women, as well as the subtle empathy and mutual admiration that grows between them. The drama that connects their two worlds plays out during a murder trial at the Tel Aviv District Court. Mali, divorced with two grown children, is having a secret affair with Yoav, the married judge of the murder trial which she is prosecuting. Slava too has her secrets: she is pretending to be a legal Jewish immigrant; she has a small daughter in the Ukraine whom she hasn’t seen for six years, and she supports her whole family there. But Mali doesn’t know all this. Slava is torn between her love for her daughter and her dream of going to university, which could come true in Israel. Mali, on the other hand, can’t heal the breaks in her own life: Her son has left Israel to live in Holland, and her estranged daughter is leaving to study in Berlin. Her loneliness, and the hopelessness of her relationship with Yoav, lead her to reflect on the choices she has made in her life, her career, and her relations with her mother, a strong, optimistic woman originally from Tunis, who has always been there for her.

Slava, Mali, Mali’s mother, and even Rivka, accused of murdering her husband, all turn out to be fascinating women whose stories shed light on one other.