Aunt Shlomzion the Great

Aunt Shlomzion the Great concerns an enigmatic father and his cantankerous daughter. The father, Adonsky, arrived in Jerusalem in the 1870s and set himself up comfortably in the burial business, providing not ordinary graves but privileged plots on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Adonsky began buying up land from decadent Arab effendis. Aunt Shlomzion inherited her father's business empire as well as his acumen. But where he devoted his energy to his transactions, Shlomzion lets hers loose on family and community in explosions of rage. She spends a lifetime terrorizing those closest to her and manipulating their lives. Two things keep Shlomzion from being a monster: her beauty and the vitality of her hatred.


A Faulkneresque treatment of the history of Israel and the mutation of Judaism in Israel...Shlomzion is a beautiful, charismatic harridan.
Publishers Weekly

Shlomzion is convincing because she is a character constructed from the deepest fears of the Israeli mind.
The New York Times