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English translation available (for publishers only)

Not in this House

During one long, stormy night, a father, his son, a young woman and a very old one fight fiercely over love in an amusing, yet moving way. Emanuel Robinson, a middle-aged Don Juan known as Mano the Great, who claims to have had over a hundred women, suddenly returns from New York to try and rescue his business in Tel Aviv. At the age of 36, his son Ami is still almost a virgin, a great disappointment to Mano. Ami, an idealistic attorney, grew up in the shadow of his father`s serial infidelity and his mother`s grief; he dreams of a great and pure love and seems about to find it. The third side of this odd triangle is 30-year-old Nimi, a woman from an orthodox family who has always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. After her elderly husband, a rabbi, divorces her and takes her daughter from her, she comes to Tel Aviv and rents the basement apartment in the Robinson home where Ami is living. With him, and for the first time in her life, Nimi experiences a delicate, hesitant love. And last but not least is Hannah Levi, who says she is 92 because she doesn`t want to say she is 95 (in fact, she is 96). As a private nurse in the 1930s, she had a secret affair with Mano`s father. However, this dapper gentleman married for money and while his wife gave birth to Mano, Hannah Levi had yet another abortion. In spite of this, she is known as the Virgin Nurse.

Title Not in this House
Writer's Last Name Bar-Yosef
Writer's First Name Yosef
Genre Fiction
Publisher (Hebrew) Hakibbutz Hameuchad
No. Pages 239pp.
Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) Lo Ba-Bayit Ha-Zeh
  • “ Bar-Yosef`s style is unique... He knows how to blend the poetic and the realistic without any artificiality... highly charged and thought provoking. ”

    Maariv
  • “So different and surprising, with its plethora of comic inventions and wonderful imaginary episodes. An original and powerful book.”

    Yedioth Ahronoth
  • “ What narrative ability, what Hebrew, what depth! There are some parts that you can gift-wrap and enjoy-pure pleasure! A magical story. Get it and read it. ”