Housebroken

In a striking debut three piercing powerful novellas that unveil the hazards of love and desire.The men women and even animals in this enthralling collection live at the mercy of their hearts. Young and old on two legs or four they grope for love and tenderness knowing that all connection is fraught with danger and all relationship random and evanescent. Yet the heart wants what it wants.The title novella a wrenching account of the end of love traces a gentle dog''s transformation into a vicious beast as the couple who owns him breaks apart. In The Happiness Game the tenuous bonds between husband and wife are undermined by black crows and weak hearts while Matti presents a chorus of voices -- doctors nurses jilted wife dying husband -- that recounts an old man''s passion for his lover a fifteen-year-old Lolita.Wise and deft tart yet tender written in supple beautifully inflected prose Yael Hedaya''s Housebroken navigates the moments of decision betrayal longing and jealousy that torment the souls of wounded lovers.