HOUSE ARREST

House Arrest takes apart its characters with a sharpened knife, building from them an original, tumultuous novel about family and money, motherhood and children, failure and success, social standing and self-image.

Asa Fogel, an unemployed professor, newly separated from his wife, awakes one morning to startling news: his beloved mother, deputy director of the Theodore Hirsch Centre for Sustainable Peace, professor of Israel studies, a refined collector of Israeli art and an avid member of several charitable associations is suspected of embezzling 3.4 million shekels from her place of work. Asa now attempts to navigate within this turbulent reality: between his sister, who is convinced their mother is innocent, and his skeptical brother; between the wife he has just separated from and who is still present in everyone's lives, and his friends who disappear; between old mistakes and new insults all played out in front of a relentless media. House Arrest takes apart its characters with a sharpened knife, building from them an original, tumultuous novel about family and money, motherhood and children, failure and success, social standing and self-image. Noa Yedlin Noa Yedlin is recipient of the 2013 Sapir Prize for Literature (The Israeli Booker). Her writing has been likened to that of Yaakov Shabtai and Ephraim Kishon. Her book, House Arrest, for which she won the Sapir Prize, is still at the top of the bestseller list in Israel. Her previous books, a collection of satirical essays, You Ask, God Replies (Xargol/Am Oved 2005) and Track Changes (Kinneret Zmora-Bitan 2010) received rave reviews, and Yedlin was earmarked as one of the most promising voices in Israeli literature. She has also published short stories in journals and anthologies, some of which have been translated into other languages. Yedlin has published numerous opinion pieces and articles, and has also been a presenter on television and radio. Her essay, The Tyranny of Emotion, was incorporated into the Israeli matriculation language examination. She teaches creative writing and gives lectures throughout Israel.