Rhyming Life & Death

In this deft masterly book Amos Oz turns his attention away from his familythe subject of the internationally acclaimed A Tale of Love and Darknessand toward his profession writing. The plot: eight hours in the life of an author. The setting: Tel Aviv a stifling hot night. A literary celebrity is giving a reading from his new book. And as his attention wanders he begins to invent lives for the strangers he sees around him: here a self-styled cultural guru Yakir Bar-Orian Zhitomirski; there a love-starved professional reader Rochele Reznik; to say nothing of Ricky the waitress the real object of his desire. One life story builds on another and the author finds himself unexpectedly involved with his creations . . .