The Remains of Love

Hemda Horovitz is nearing the end of her life. As she lies in bed in Jerusalem, memories from the past flood her thoughts: her childhood in the kibbutz spent under the gaze of her stern, pioneer father; the lake that was her only solace; and her own two children-one she could never love enough, and the other whom she loved too much.

Avner, the beloved child, has grown up to be a heavy, anguished man, disillusioned by his work and trapped in a loveless marriage. When visiting his mother in the hospital, he witnesses a devoted couple's final moments together; after the man's death Avner becomes obsessed with finding the woman, and a strange and delicate relationship unfolds.

Dina, Hemda's daughter, has put aside her career in order to give her teenage daughter, Nitzan, the warmth she never received from her own mother. But Nitzan is withdrawing from her, and Dina is overcome by a longing to adopt another child-a longing that, if fulfilled, may destroy her fragile family.

Zeruya Shalev's electrifying new novel is at once a meditation on the state of modern Israel and a profound exploration of family, yearning, compromise, and the insistent pull of the past.

“An acute and profound statement ... One of the most powerful novels I have read in recent years.” —Amos Oz on The Remains of Love

“Her language is hauntingly, painfully lyrical, and her understanding of the conflicted human yearning for connection and solitude astounds.” —Publishers Weekly on Husband and Wife

“Sexually explicit yet dense with biblical allusions and psychological insight... broke all the barriers.” —New York Times Book Review on Love Life

“Shalev brings us so close to her [character's] emotional center that judgment is overwhelmed by sympathy. There really is something volcanic about Ella's suffering, something epic about her superficially ordinary story.” —The New Republic onThera

“Shalev explores how we express affection and how we discover new reserves of it when all seems lost. Credit Shalev for not making a bluntly sentimental novel out of such themes.” —Kirkus