This award-winning novel takes readers to postwar Israel, introducing them to a mother and daughter-in-law with an unusual relationship and offering a unique perspective on Jewish identity and experience."A grand, brave, open-hearted novel...honest, intelligent, and highly entertaining." (The Boston Globe) "Reworking the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi, with perhaps a nod to Neil Simon's 'Odd Couple,' the book explores the complex relationship between the narrator, an abrasive, 50-year-old Jewish survivor from Budapest named Nora Gratz...and her widowed daughter-in-law, 22-year-old Louisa. The punch line: Louisa is a German Christian...she has accompanied Nora to Israel, haven of Holocaust survivors, where an Aryan immigrant can hardly expect a welcome...A wonderfully bittersweet work that broods on loss even as it affirms human resilience, connection, and a faith in providence." (The New York Times Book Review) "Superb...an important contribution to the literature of Holocaust and Exodus." (Kirkus Reviews [starred review]) "Haunting...a provocative depiction of the enduring mysteries of human relationships." (Publishers Weekly [starred review]) Author Biography: Simone Zelitch's first novel, The Confessions of Jack Straw, won the Hopwood Award. A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Michigan, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary. Zelitch is also a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction.