A Woman in JerusalemA woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of "gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery's owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. This man is at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman's life take shape-she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful-he yields to feelings of regret, atonement, and even love. At once profoundly serious and highly entertaining, A. B. Yehoshua astonishes us with his masterly, often unexpected turns in the story and with his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today. |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 27 |
Section 3 | 39 |
Section 4 | 43 |
Section 5 | 44 |
Section 6 | 56 |
Section 7 | 63 |
Section 8 | 68 |
Section 11 | 101 |
Section 12 | 108 |
Section 13 | 139 |
Section 14 | 145 |
Section 15 | 171 |
Section 16 | 199 |
Section 17 | 205 |
Section 18 | 232 |
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Common terms and phrases
already army asked baby believe better body bombing bring bury cleaning woman clear close coffin cold consul corpse course dark daughter dead death decided didn't don't door dream emissary eyes face feel felt give glance gone hand head hope human resources manager husband It's Jerusalem journalist keep knew late leave light listen living longer look matter mean mind morgue morning mother never night shift office manager once opened owner perhaps person photographer reached remember response returned secretary seemed sergeant shut sleep smile someone story supervisor sure surprised taken talking tell That's There's thing thought told took touch turned village voice waiting weasel What's wished woman workers worry you're young