Saul Searching

Saul Semel’s main problem is other people. Otherwise, he is doing just fine. He is one of the best-known and respected writers in Israel, he has appeared on the world’s most esteemed literary platforms, and in the fall of 2001—the year of the attack on the Twin Towers—he is a visiting professor at New York University. However, truth to tell, he has not had anything published in a decade.

If you were to ask Saul, he’d say that as far as he is concerned this is quite alright. But those around him are less satisfied. His editor, his ex-wife and even his mother all expect him to try harder in order to maintain his literary status. It is perhaps because of this that when he meets Alona—a brilliant, enigmatic young woman who worships his very being—Saul loses his head. He has never met anyone like Alona. She can write like the devil, although she does not know much about literature; she is emotionally defenseless yet has a survivor’s nature.

When Saul realizes that Alona possesses the key to his return to the heights of the literary world, he ignores all the alarm signals and sets out on an ambitious and wild path, endangering himself, Alona, and all that is dear to him. Saul Searching is an exhilarating novel, entertaining and thoughtful, that probes our fear of admitting that the best parts of our lives are behind us, our anxiety that everything we think about ourselves is wrong, and the realization that the moment someone even considers doing a deal with the devil, they have in effect already signed that deal.