Summer Honey

Daniella Carmi, whose writing reveals particular sensitivity to society`s outcasts, sets the plot of her novel in an institution for the mentally deficient. Adjacent to the institution is a prison whose inmates include security detainees. With great sensitivity, courage and humor, the novel describes the lives of several mentally ill women who live in Room 7: Didi, the narrator, who grew up in a boarding school and with foster families, who all washed their hands of her; Larissa from the Ukraine, who was a railway engineer in her homeland and was abandoned in Israel by her husband; Mally, who bangs her head against the wall and was engaged in prostitution; Sharon, who hides under the blankets and wanders around at night; and Zohara. Zohara, who is married to the governor of the adjacent prison, jumped from the roof of the spacious villa where she lived with her husband, and fractured her pelvis. She arrives in Room 7 and transforms the bleak routine of daily life for the inmates. Zohara, like a fairytale princess or sorceress, provides her friends with a fabulous nightlife, a fantastic and delusional alternative to the depressing reality of everyday life. At night she manages to smuggle the choice males from the adjacent prison into the room: the dazzling blue-eyed burglar, the redhead, Ilan the Snake, and the two security detainees: Magic Razi the giant, and Kassem the dwarf, who are digging a tunnel through which they plan to escape to freedom. The nocturnal entertainment with the prison inmates enriches the lives of the women, and they experience a touch of happiness.
Daniella Carmi`s novel is a parable about the aspiration for freedom and inner liberty, and deals with the tension between an imprisoned body and a soaring spirit. In the end, the two male inmates make a successful break for freedom, and Zohara joins them. Didi, however, has met Charlie in the institution and is expecting a baby.