Susannah Rabin can't stand people or is it that they can't stand her? Either way, she'd rather cocoon herself in the tiny apartment she shares with her devoted, overbearing mother than face the excruciating torment of human contact.
So when Susannah's mother tells her that their American cousin Neo is coming to stay, Susannah is apprehensive, or more precisely, she is horrified. And rightly so. Straight away the guest - as she likes to call him - begins to worm his way into her mother's affections, and - worse - to destroy Susannah's carefully constructed solitude. And then one day, the guest offers to teach her how to draw.
Susannah can't help but be captivated by the fascinating world of her enigmatic, beautiful cousin. But because people are contrary and life is like that, Susannah's mother - responsible after all for the guest's presence - becomes anxious at their growing friendship, and asks the obvious question: what exactly is Neo doing in Israel?
Alona Kimhi's first novel is funny, raw and brilliant, an extraordinarily vivid portrait of a woman, like the state of Israel itself, striving to establish a strong and independent identity in the face towering uncertainty and doubt.
