The Extra - Softcover

Yehoshua, A.B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1905559798 ISBN 13: 9781905559794

Publisher: Halban Publishers, 2016

Synopsis

An experiment is under way in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: a woman, recently widowed, is starting a trial period in assisted living, mainly to placate her over-anxious son, whilst in Jerusalem her daughter Noga, a young harpist, returns from her job with a Dutch orchestra to look after the family apartment.

To enliven her stay, Noga's brother finds work for her - playing roles as an extra in film, TV, and in the opera Carmen. The random roles Noga is thrust into resonate strangely with her own life which she begins to re-evaluate. Central to her past is the fact that she refused to have children, resulting in the break-up of her marriage. No-one in her family understood her motives for not wanting children and everyone has a different explanation for it. Now, a chance encounter with her former husband reveals his continuing powerful, love as well as a shocking deed she committed during their marriage.

But Noga is a free spirit neither tied to the past nor defined by it, and always keen to push boundaries. She lives for her music and is willing to go wherever it takes her. The three-month experiment proves as much of a test for her as for her mother and both are radically transformed by the end.

A.B. Yehoshua is as creative, humorous and provocative as ever in The Extra, exploring themes familiar to him of love, family relationships and artistic ambitions, set mainly in an ever-changing Jerusalem.

About this title

Review:

"The ease with which Yehoshua captures the inner life of his quirky heroine in all its lush undertones and self-enforced solitude is special. . . Rich in reflection and personal truth. Yehoshua's masterful portrayal of a female musician at a pivotal moment in her life is deep, unpredictable, and, in the end, surprisingly suspenseful." "Kirkus," starred review "Award-winning Israeli novelist Yehoshua gives moral force, even grandeur, to the inevitable push-pull of one family s life." "Library Journal," starred review "This story of family relationships and personal choices offers an insightful look at redemption and acceptance." "Booklist" Stuart Schoffman s rendition of Yehoshua s Hebrew prose is a delight, and Noga is a compelling contemporary heroine. Four and a half decades after his first book s publication his 20th shows Yehoshua s writing chops are undiminished and his content fearlessly topical. "New York Journal of Books""

Stuart Schoffman s rendition of Yehoshua s Hebrew prose is a delight, and Noga is a compelling contemporary heroine. Four and a half decades after his first book s publication his 20th shows Yehoshua s writing chops are undiminished and his content fearlessly topical. New York Journal of Books

Engaging Yehoshua is a master in his visual sketches of scenes. New York Times Book Review

"In this thoughtful novel, a contentedly single Israeli harpist living in the Netherlands returns home because of a bureaucratic issue to do with her mother s apartment in Jerusalem. She enjoys her forced sabbatical, wandering the city, sparring with Orthodox neighbors, and freelancing as a movie extra...Yehoshua seems to be hinting that, 'in a country that never ceases to be a threat to itself, ' peaceful deadlock is a small but genuine victory." The New Yorker

"[A] finely etched new novel...Smoothly translated into a lyrical English by Stuart Schoffman, Yehoshua s style of calm control enfolds the reader in the strains and pulls between Israel and the Diaspora (what he elsewhere calls 'the great debate between Israel and the Golah'), between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, between private decision and the social imperatives of 'be fruitful and multiply' (a subject Israeli sociologist Orna Donath raises in nonfiction form in her compelling recent book 'Regretting Motherhood').Out of such tarnished discontinuities Yehoshua has fashioned his art, and from them he has now minted a marvel of a book." Haaretz

"The ease with which Yehoshua captures the inner life of his quirky heroine in all its lush undertones and self-enforced solitude is special. . . Rich in reflection and personal truth. Yehoshua's masterful portrayal of a female musician at a pivotal moment in her life is deep, unpredictable, and, in the end, surprisingly suspenseful." Kirkus, starred review

"Award-winning Israeli novelist Yehoshua gives moral force, even grandeur, to the inevitable push-pull of one family s life." Library Journal, starred review

"This story of family relationships and personal choices offers an insightful look at redemption and acceptance." Booklist

"InThe Extra, award-winning Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua movingly portrays a woman s struggle for independence amid familial expectations and obligations...Readers who enjoy delving into the intersections of art and literature, or who are interested in the difficulties of controlling one s trajectory while simultaneously remaining responsive to friends and family, will appreciate the ideas put forth in Yehoshua s latest piece." Jewish Book Council"

"Stuart Schoffman's rendition of Yehoshua's Hebrew prose is a delight, and Noga is a compelling contemporary heroine. Four and a half decades after his first book's publication his 20th shows Yehoshua's writing chops are undiminished and his content fearlessly topical."--New York Journal of Books

"Engaging...Yehoshua is a master in his visual sketches of scenes."--New York Times Book Review

"In this thoughtful novel, a contentedly single Israeli harpist living in the Netherlands returns home because of a bureaucratic issue to do with her mother's apartment in Jerusalem. She enjoys her forced sabbatical, wandering the city, sparring with Orthodox neighbors, and freelancing as a movie extra...Yehoshua seems to be hinting that, 'in a country that never ceases to be a threat to itself, ' peaceful deadlock is a small but genuine victory."--The New Yorker

"[A] finely etched new novel...Smoothly translated into a lyrical English by Stuart Schoffman, Yehoshua's style of calm control enfolds the reader in the strains and pulls between Israel and the Diaspora (what he elsewhere calls 'the great debate between Israel and the Golah'), between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, between private decision and the social imperatives of 'be fruitful and multiply' (a subject Israeli sociologist Orna Donath raises in nonfiction form in her compelling recent book 'Regretting Motherhood'). Out of such tarnished discontinuities Yehoshua has fashioned his art, and from them he has now minted a marvel of a book."--Haaretz

"The ease with which Yehoshua captures the inner life of his quirky heroine in all its lush undertones and self-enforced solitude is special . . . Rich in reflection and personal truth. Yehoshua's masterful portrayal of a female musician at a pivotal moment in her life is deep, unpredictable, and, in the end, surprisingly suspenseful."--Kirkus, starred review

"Award-winning Israeli novelist Yehoshua gives moral force, even grandeur, to the inevitable push-pull of one family's life."--Library Journal, starred review

"This story of family relationships and personal choices offers an insightful look at redemption and acceptance."--Booklist

"In The Extra, award-winning Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua movingly portrays a woman's struggle for independence amid familial expectations and obligations...Readers who enjoy delving into the intersections of art and literature, or who are interested in the difficulties of controlling one's trajectory while simultaneously remaining responsive to friends and family, will appreciate the ideas put forth in Yehoshua's latest piece."--Jewish Book Council

Book Description:

A.B. Yehoshua is as creative, humorous and provocative as ever in The Extra

About this edition

• Publisher: Halban Publishers
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1905559798
• ISBN 13: 9781905559794
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304