The Guests
It happened five years ago.
All over the world people woke up in the morning and found a box of shoes on their doorstep – a different pair of shoes for every human being. No one could resist the temptation to try them on for they were exactly what each one desired.
And then it began. The metamorphosis. Like no other.
It was the most catastrophic week in the history of humanity. People gradually became their personal objects of hate. Millions lost their minds or committed suicide. Others resorted to violence. Hate could no longer be concealed—it showed on people’s faces. Once the week was over, people thought the metamorphosis was done. They were mistaken. Adam Core, the protagonist, needs to understand what happened five years ago. After all, he is a private investigator of a special kind. But he has a more urgent reason. He lost Yotam, his lover, in the metamorphosis. And now, like everybody else, he has to come to terms with the new world.
The Guests, Ofir Touche Gafla’s sixth novel, is a suspenseful and poetic book which explores human interactions in the wake of a devastating disaster. A mix of genres, it describes a world different to ours and yet, quite similar, discussing big themes such as identity, memory, loss and love.
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“Gafla’s ambition is no less than a miracle which makes the reading of his books always rewarding.”
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“Ofir Touche Gafla’s magic realism makes his novel a riveting, enjoyable and thought-provoking work, which succeeds in posing questions about ‘I’ and ‘The Other’, memory and writing, past and future.”
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“Yet another masterpiece by Ofir Touché Gafla... It’s hard to think of another Israeli writer with such an imagination, let alone one who can combine fiction and reality that well. Originality is simply gushing out of him.”