One day in early summer, Yoram leaves his wife Ruthie
and daughter Julie without any warning or explanation. Ruthie, in her 40s, and
Julie, 17, become outsiders in the sleepy, family-oriented village where they
live, but they are determined to heal their disrupted lives. Unexpectedly,
Julie encourages her mother to find a new man, and Ruthie, an attractive woman,
soon nabs Amnon and finds consolation in his arms. But Julie hates him from the
first moment, and Ruthie’s ability to find new interest in her life only
highlights her daughter’s fragile condition. Shortly after Amnon walks out
stormily, Motti appears, looking like an ideal solution. Apart from an odd
obsession with his appearance, he seems to be the perfect man. But he brings
with him his sensitive, handsome son Jonah who has suicidal tendencies and
lives in a special hut that Motti builds for him in the garden. And yet, amidst
the strange relationship that develops between Jonah and the rest of the
household, Jonah and Julie – surprisingly - fall in love.
Other People’s Homes courageously tackles the cost of love
between couples, and between parents and children. Deakla Keydar creates one-of-a-kind
characters in the shadow of disaster. With rare honesty, she shapes dramatic
scenes and humorous, sometimes grotesque situations. Builds an enthralling plot
that leaves a deep impression.
PARTIAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILABLE (for publishers only).
I read it in one night…I couldn’t stop … I don’t really want to decipher the spell that the book cast on me … The miracle of the encounter between a particular reader and a particular book is, after all, a very personal miracle … Many books are published; few enter your heart like this one.
Author Eshkol Nevo
I read Deakla Keydar’s novel almost without putting it down. The book keeps you in suspense … Keydar [is] a wizard with words, but [what makes her a writer] is her dark imagination … the vivid subjectivity that dominates events … and the furious sequence of situations [that] both follow each other logically, yet are very surprising … A powerful book.
Haaretz
We’ve waited a long time for a novel from Keydar ... What is special here is the way Keydar describes and strips bare burning emotions, fear, horrendous humiliation. She knows where to find the special in the banal, the unexpected in the routine.
Yedioth Ahronoth
A magnificent book … It is marvelously written, has plot twists that surprise every time anew, and a wonderful grasp of its characters. Let’s have more.
Kol Israel 2
What is unique about this book [is that] after all the great dramas … what remains is the people, they are really important ... This is one of the best books written on this subject in recent years…precisely because it is unpretentious and adheres to an … insignificant plot that jolts the life of one family … This book is a significant milestone in Deakla Keydar’s career.
Walla
Keydar’s main achievement is the ability to depict lives and situations that are ostensibly normal and yet to veer away to key scenes that are unexpected, and yet both logical and convincing.
Yedioth Ahronoth
Keydar is a talented writer … This is a tangible, visual book, in
which each scene is gripping in itself.
Makor Rishon
Overwhelming, intense.
Poet Tal Nitzan