Dafna and Yula

Young womanhood is the link between these two novellas. With an absent mother and low self-esteem, 11th-grade Yula is drawn into a destructive relationship with 18-year-old B., who uses her sexually but refuses to acknowledge her publicly. Yula does something surprising to teach him the responsibility of love. B. doesn’t respond as she`d hoped, but his friend Nitzan does.

In the second story, Dafna marries the first man who will have her. But the fear of being alone that pushed her into the marriage comes back to haunt her. Fear paralyzes her and she can’t take even the smallest steps out into the world. She gets better when her husband, Uri, leaves for reserve army duty, but at the first sign of understanding from another man, she decides she has found true love and makes a fool of herself.

Nurit Zarchi’s contrasting novellas pinpoint the inner tension of young womanhood.