Nomi is an American immigrant to a fictional kibbutz in northern Israel, where she has lived for the past 40 years. Her husband, Avi, has recently died of COVID-19, and Nomi is adrift. She has never felt fully at home on the kibbutz.
“Over the years, Nomi was slowly accepted by the kibbutzniks but not fully. She wondered if she should go back there when she returned to Israel. But with no money or education beyond high school, she did not know how to support herself if she left the kibbutz. There, she worked in agriculture in the fields, orchards, and hot houses. She knew her place; it was safe, even if not perfect.
“So now here she was, over 40 years after leaving the US, pressing reverse on her life.”
Ner-David is also a rabbi and knows how to write about relationships and human nature. Some of the relationships, such as that of Nomi and her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in 40 years and is now facing dementia, are laced with regret; others, like that of Nomi and her dead sister, Jude, reek of unfulfilled potential.
Throughout the book, there are memories of a past trauma that first sent Nomi into exile, a subplot about a pregnant Orthodox teenager, and a possible romantic relationship with John, a sympathetic non-Jewish police officer.
Nomi goes to the US to sort out her sister’s estate and finds that she has inherited a farmhouse on the outskirts of Salem, Massachusetts. The house, and the area, also become a character in the novel, which morphs from literary fiction to suspense and back.
I’m always a little hesitant when friends ask me to review their books, afraid of what I’ll write if I don’t enjoy the book. In this case, I read most of the book over one Shabbat, and I was so immersed in the characters that I almost forgot I was in my living room in Jerusalem, and not in a farmhouse in Salem.
The book is well written and challenging, which is about all you can ask from a novel these days. ■
