The famed Israeli novelist limns the impact of a drug rehab center on a troubled couple and their town. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Subtlety, both in form and content, defines this quiet yet penetrating short novel from Israel's best-known writer. Set in Tel-Kedar, an Israeli settlement in the Negev Desert, the story concerns a slowly disintegrating relationship, distance gradually displacing intimacy just as the desert inexorably threatens to reclaim the forlorn little town. Teo, a 60-year-old engineer, has recently returned to Israel from Latin America at the whim of his lover, the much-younger No'a, a teacher. Their relationship, begun in Venezuela, startled both of them with its intensity, the limitless connection that broke down all of the self's defenses. Yet, now, limits have reasserted themselves, and the lovers tread warily, "like touching glass with glass and drawing back just in time." When one of No'a's pupils dies of a drug overdose, the townsfolk argue over a fitting memorial, and Teo and No'a are drawn into the turmoil. Skillfully alternating point of view between his two main characters, Oz shows us the painful process by which a couple uncouples, one sinew at a time. And yet, hope is never quite extinguished: Is tenderness alone enough to withstand the desert's arid wind? (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1996)0151001529Bill Ott

An affair winds down in a Negev Desert town as a young student with an arms-dealer father is found dead. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved