CLEAN DEATH IN TEL AVIV

About the Book

Ruth Levin-A soldier and intellectual, liberated and puritanical, masculine and feminine, craving for life and living in the shadow of death-experiences the unbearable personal and collective anguish of the New Jewish Woman.

Blending mythology, poetry and a contemplative passion for self-knowledge, the heroics, tragedies and yearnings of the Zionist saga are exposed through one woman's desperate narrative-culminating in her dissolution, reflecting the realities that displaced utopian hopes.

"The author analyses herself and us with razor-sharp perspicacity, peering into the very essence of a woman's soul. The book offers a daring and courageous retrospective panorama."
-Dimui, Journal of Literature, Art and Criticism

"Using an inner monologue to examine the dark sides of one's soul, Elboim-Dror examines in her novel the selfhood of her tragic heroine, exploring deeply internal and external realities without retreating, posing a challenge to her readers."
-Iton 77, Literary Monthly.

"Ideological debates clashing with stubborn and difficult realities, the landscape, the colors and smells of the ancient virgin land, the social and family tribulations, suspicions and cooperation, fears and loves, resourcefulness and sacrifices and the naked raw sexuality."
-Hadoar, Hebrew bi-weekly, New York.

About the Author

Rachel Elboim-Dror is a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She grew up in a pioneering settlement, served as officer in the Israeli army, and received her doctorate from Harvard. Her novel, published in Spanish and Hebrew, was chosen as one of the best published in Israel in 1999.