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The Editor

The Editor portrays a woman in an era when men are falling apart. A magazine editor who insists on saying whatever she thinks, even when it is unnecessary; a woman who is trying— all at once— to run her magazine, her home, her life as a divorcee and her love life and, most of all, to keep her head above water while the waves toss her about without mercy. Although she has already achieved everything that was expected of her—especially by her mother—she feels empty-handed. She’s a woman who has always walked a slightly crooked path, yet has somehow, shrewdly, managed to see straight ahead. And perhaps this is also what love looks like to her. Perhaps not.

The Editor is both a funny and painful novel, biting and razor sharp. It is written in prose that is at the same time clear and convoluted. It tells the story of a disintegrating marriage but also of falling in love; of humanity, of cravings, of obsession and, most of all, of greed. It is a tale of female redemption set in the bustling workplace of an alternative culture magazine, and it is a trenchant statement on the direction that the Israeli media has taken.

Title The Editor
Writer's Last Name Shaham
Writer's First Name Yael
Genre Fiction
Publisher (Hebrew) Keter
No. Pages 287pp.
Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) Ha-Orechet
  • “A bold work … free flowing and trenchant, containing frequent amusing linguistic and psychological discernments. The final scene, principally the final paragraph, is outstandingly outrageous, a lesson in how to write. It left me stunned, alarmed. A story that deserves to be read.”

    Haaretz
  • “A wise and entertaining book, at times disturbing, without ever being really murky... Vibrant, cool, creative.”

    Itay Ziv, 7 Nights magazine
  • “A clever book.”