The Mermaid in the Bathtub

A lyrical love story with a feminist touch, and a Hollywood ending.

Everyone is familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Little Mermaid, a tragic story about the gap between man and nature. Nurit Zarchi’s story, on the other hand, is a fantastic-comic tale with a happy ending, because sometimes the seemingly impossible actually happens. All one needs to do is keep an open mind and ignore convention, and then even a mermaid—half-woman and half-fish—can find a human bridegroom to love her.

The hero of the story is an ordinary young man called Whatwilltheysay. One day he finds a charming mermaid called Sandgrain in his house. Whatwilltheysay tells her that her top half is very attractive, but he can never marry a fish. What would people say? Sandgrain is very sad and decides to leave, and the young man returns to his normal life. But then he begins to miss Sandgrain, so he
takes a fishing boat out to sea, and the mermaid is waiting for him.