“The book focuses on daily issues and touches the deepest places… I loved the novel and kept thinking about it long after reading it.”
Lee Yanini, reviewer in the The Israeli Librarian Journal
Today’s excerpts center on Abigail and Guy, friends of Daphne and Amir, who decide not to have children
Abigail –
“Since I was an only child I hesitated before telling her I didn’t want children; when I did she didn’t seem surprised, as if she had anticipated this. Her indifference almost insulted me, but immediately I came to my senses, thinking it was better this way. I would have found it hard to resist if she had urged me to have children. Whenever she asked me for something, always quietly and softly, I couldn’t refuse.”
“If I hear the word “pregnancy” one more time I will simply walk away. I can’t take it anymore. Another discussion on the stages of giving birth, a detailed description on how the embryo turns in the womb, I have had enough of this.”
How the pregnancy of their friends influences their lives:
“The foetus kicking in Daphne’s belly has moved in with us, disrupting our self-absorbed routine, one project after the other. It is following us everywhere: to decorated offices, fine restaurants, the gym, bars and parties; it simply won’t leave us alone. I think we will never be able to get rid of it.”
After Tomer is born:
“That damn baby, the small creature that everyone is gazing at with such amazement, as if he were the first child ever to come into this world. The ridiculous excitement created by the delivery. The silly smiles and the ludicrous voices they use as they look at him, making faces as if this was the way to show affection. The giggling, the comments about the new parents. I find it all disgusting. Soon I will go to sleep. Another couple of glasses of wine and everything will blur and vanish.”
Guy –
“I’m not going to pretend that it didn’t start off as competition, but now it evolved into something else, unrelated to Amir. Maybe it is an innate human instinct, something beyond specific circumstances. I really don’t know, a sort of desire to live on in my children.”
Available at Waterstones, Hive, Wordery, Amazon and all good bookshops!