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Bliss (03 Edition)

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Synopses & Reviews

Please note that used books may not include additional media (study guides, CDs, DVDs, solutions manuals, etc.) as described in the publisher comments.

Publisher Comments:

Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines. Ronit Matalon's fiction has been praised as "haunting," "inventive," "refreshingly daring." Now in a graceful, illuminating second novel, she tells a provocative story of two loves, two partings, two worlds, two women: Ofra and Sarah.

When Ofra is called from Tel Aviv to France to attend the funeral of her beloved cousin Michel, she escapes a life lived vicariously through Sarah, her oldest friend, a photographer and political activist. In Paris, Ofra enters the embrace of her French family and the intimate world of domestic life, while Sarah, in Tel Aviv, drifts even farther from her husband, Udi. Drawn to a Palestinian nationalist, she takes on the fight for a girl from Gaza who has been injured by an Israeli bullet and needs medical treatment that can only be had inside Israel. As Sarah adopts the cause with near- destructive zeal and pledges herself to the suffering of others, her own child goes untended, with dreadful consequences for all.

Against a backdrop of national conflict, Bliss confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family. With vivid, penetrating prose, Matalon has delivered a large and resonant work that is as artful as it is affecting.

Review:

"Matalon's finely calibrated prose, cosmopolitan outlook and nuanced perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict give the novel a sophisticated grace..." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Matalon's writing, often exquisite in Jessica Cohen's translation from the Hebrew, shifts down from warfare to bereavement, from the tragedy of the extremes to the sorrowfulness of the mean....If the author wields thunderous themes in the Tel Aviv sections, she masters small, life-giving details in the French ones." New York Times

Review:

"An interesting if difficult read that attests viscerally to friendship, loyalty, and their consequences." Library Journal

Review:

"Imperfect and mistitled yet incisive, Bliss provides a colloquial glimpse at the Israeli social fabric." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Matalon creates a shifting, dreamlike mosaic in which each scene is vividly conveyed yet persistently enigmatic..." Booklist

Synopsis:

Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, this is a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines. Against a backdrop of national conflict, "Bliss" confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family.

Synopsis:

Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines

Ronit Matalon's fiction has been praised as "haunting," "inventive," "refreshingly daring." Now in a graceful, illuminating second novel, she tells a provocative story of two loves, two partings, two worlds, two women: Ofra and Sarah.

When Ofra is called from Tel Aviv to France to attend the funeral of her beloved cousin Michel, she escapes a life lived vicariously through Sarah, her oldest friend, a photographer and political activist. In Paris, Ofra enters the embrace of her French family and the intimate world of domestic life, while Sarah, in Tel Aviv, drifts even farther from her husband, Udi. Drawn to a Palestinian nationalist, she takes on the fight for a girl from Gaza who has been injured by an Israeli bullet and needs medical treatment that can only be had inside Israel. As Sarah adopts the cause with near- destructive zeal and pledges herself to the suffering of others, her own child goes untended, with dreadful consequences for all.

Against a backdrop of national conflict, Bliss confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family. With vivid, penetrating prose, Matalon has delivered a large and resonant work that is as artful as it is affecting.

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About the Author

Ronit Matalon is the author of the novel The One Facing Us (0-8050-6185-1). A bestselling writer in Israel whose work has been translated throughout the world, Matalon is also an influential journalist, columnist, and reviewer. She lives in Tel Aviv.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780805066029
Subtitle:
A Novel
Translator:
Cohen, Jessica
Translator:
Cohen, Jessie
Translator:
Cohen, Jessica
Author:
Cohen, Jessica
Author:
Matalon, Ronit
Translator:
Cohen, Jessie
Publisher:
Metropolitan Books
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
France
Subject:
Jewish
Subject:
Young women
Edition Number:
1st American ed.
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Series Volume:
21
Publication Date:
20030812
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
272
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.50 x 1.00 in
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Related Subjects

Bliss (03 Edition) Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$12.00 In Stock
Product details 272 pages MacMillan Higher Education - English 9780805066029 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Matalon's finely calibrated prose, cosmopolitan outlook and nuanced perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict give the novel a sophisticated grace..."
"Review" by , "Matalon's writing, often exquisite in Jessica Cohen's translation from the Hebrew, shifts down from warfare to bereavement, from the tragedy of the extremes to the sorrowfulness of the mean....If the author wields thunderous themes in the Tel Aviv sections, she masters small, life-giving details in the French ones."
"Review" by , "An interesting if difficult read that attests viscerally to friendship, loyalty, and their consequences."
"Review" by , "Imperfect and mistitled yet incisive, Bliss provides a colloquial glimpse at the Israeli social fabric."
"Review" by , "Matalon creates a shifting, dreamlike mosaic in which each scene is vividly conveyed yet persistently enigmatic..."
"Synopsis" by , Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, this is a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines. Against a backdrop of national conflict, "Bliss" confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family.
"Synopsis" by ,
Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines

Ronit Matalon's fiction has been praised as "haunting," "inventive," "refreshingly daring." Now in a graceful, illuminating second novel, she tells a provocative story of two loves, two partings, two worlds, two women: Ofra and Sarah.

When Ofra is called from Tel Aviv to France to attend the funeral of her beloved cousin Michel, she escapes a life lived vicariously through Sarah, her oldest friend, a photographer and political activist. In Paris, Ofra enters the embrace of her French family and the intimate world of domestic life, while Sarah, in Tel Aviv, drifts even farther from her husband, Udi. Drawn to a Palestinian nationalist, she takes on the fight for a girl from Gaza who has been injured by an Israeli bullet and needs medical treatment that can only be had inside Israel. As Sarah adopts the cause with near- destructive zeal and pledges herself to the suffering of others, her own child goes untended, with dreadful consequences for all.

Against a backdrop of national conflict, Bliss confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family. With vivid, penetrating prose, Matalon has delivered a large and resonant work that is as artful as it is affecting.
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