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A Woman in Jerusalem (Hardcover)

by A.B. Yehoshua (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £11.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 237 pages
  • Publisher: Halban (27 April 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1870015983
  • ISBN-13: 978-1870015981
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 122,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > Y > Yehoshua, A.B.

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Product Description

Review
A B Yehoshua's will be visiting visit the UK in June and some excellent events and interviews have already been lined up: Events: GUARDIAN HAY FESTIVAL, Sunday 4 June CHATHAM HOUSE, Monday 5 June ICA, Monday 5 June THE WRITER'S CENTRE, Dublin, tbc Interviews: BBC WORLD SERVICE interview with Harriett Gilbert, Monday 5 June, 11.30am BBC WORLD SERVICE "The World Today" and "World Update" with Iain Croft, tbc

Product Description
A suicide bomb explodes in a Jerusalem market. One of the victims is a migrant worker without any papers, only a salary slip from the bakery where she worked as a night cleaner. As her body lies unclaimed in the morgue, her employers are labelled unfeeling and inhuman by a local journalist. The manager of human resources is given the task of discovering who she was and why she had come to Jerusalem. As the image of this once-beautiful dead woman begins to obsess him, the manager turns this duty into a personal mission - he is no longer just saving his company's reputation by trying to discover her identity and assure her of a dignified funeral. He is now restoring her not only to her family and country but also to common humanity - whilst at the same time conquering the hardness of his own heart.

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A Woman in Jerusalem
87% buy the item featured on this page:
A Woman in Jerusalem 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "There was no choice. They had to see it through to the end.", 24 Aug 2006
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: A Woman in Jerusalem (Hardcover)
A Jerusalem bombing results in the death of an unidentified woman, unvisited at the hospital during the last days of her life. Unmourned, she remains in the local morgue for more than a week, until she is finally traced to the bakery where she worked. An aggressive newspaper reporter breaks the story of the unmissed employee, and the bakery's eight-seven-year-old owner, furious at the story's accusations of callousness, assigns the human resources manager to learn about woman so that "a more tangible expression of regret from himself and his staff" can be made.The resources manager soon learns that Yulia Ragayev was a Russian engineer working on the bakery's night-time cleaning crew.

Creating empathy for Yulia, the author shows details about her life and those who have loved and abandoned her. He uses symbolic details to create parallels and contrasts--the warm, homey smell of the bakery contrasting with the horrors of the bombing, the abandoned doll of a barefoot monk in Yulia's shack providing a touching parallel to the cold poverty of her own life. Serious thematic questions arise: Who is responsible for Yulia in Jerusalem? And if she is not solely responsible for her own life, how much, if anything, does anyone else owe her?

Eventually, the bakery owner demands a dignified funeral for Yulia, and he assigns the resources manager to escort her body back to her Russian village so she can be buried there. The timid human resources manager soon learns more than he ever bargained for about Yulia, life, bureaucracy, and ultimately, about the human resources he himself possesses.

Wonderfully dark humor gradually emerges from the ironies that occur on the Russian journey, as Yehoshua emphasizes the continuing absurdity of life. The hostile newspaper reporter ("the weasel") and his photographer ("the snake") accompany the resources manager and the coffin to Russia. The manager is forced to pay bribes, both to the authorities and to Yulia's family, and as he travels farther into the bleak interior of the Russian steppes, a terrible winter storm approaches. While the manager stays underground, the coffin remains out in the open.

A full-scale slapstick comedy of noir elements results, with the manager announcing that "Atonement was turning into lunacy." Readers will celebrate the ending, as Yehoshua brings the action, themes, and characters full circle, showing the growth of the human resources manager, his pragmatism (learned on the trip), and his awareness of the larger mission with which he has been entrusted. This novel about "a dead temporary resident who believed in Jerusalem more than Jerusalem believes in itself" is one of the most satisfying novels I've read this year. Mary Whipple
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A Long Trip, 1 Jan 2007
By Ethan Cooper (Big Apple) - See all my reviews
A foreign worker is killed in a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem and the personnel manager at her employer becomes responsible for organizing the internment, due largely to his boss's generosity, compassion, and public relations savvy.

In summary, this sounds like the story of an unusual corporate assignment. But this misses what is probably the leading quality of the narrative, at least through the first two-thirds of the book. This is the relentless and annoying effort of peripheral characters to influence the actions of the personnel manager--largely by making arguments, some cynical and some sincere, to define the personnel manager's responsibility to this victim of terrorism.

For me, the effect of their efforts was to shift the narrative from a story of obstacles overcome to a story replete with aggravating meddling. You know what it's like when your strong minded relatives tell you how to perform a task you can handle competently yourself? Testy is the mood I carried through much of this novel.

At the same time, I'd fault Yehoshua for failing to pull motivation and meaning out of the actions of the characters. Yes, there are numerous declarations about compassion. But, these do not seem to flow from character. Likewise, the final section of the book contains a heavy handed imposition of philosophy and myth, which, once again, is external to the characters. Finally, there's lots of overt button pushing that surely resonates with many readers, as Yehoshua condemns characters for not trying hard enough or not doing enough for their children. On Amazon.com, one reviewer faulted this book for lacking subtlety and I agree.

Nonetheless, this book does reward the persevering reader with a surprising and touching ending that also raises a valid question. Here comes a spoiler: But at the end of his novel, Yehoshua considers who rightfully belongs in Jerusalem.

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5.0 out of 5 stars one of yehoshua's best books, 4 Feb 2009
By C. vitale - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Woman in Jerusalem (Paperback)
an amazing tale - from a curious accident yehoshua manages to tell a deep story about people and feelings.
one of yehoshua's best books
i read it all in one go and reread it again soon after.
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