Love Life

Zeruya Shalev's first novel follows Ya'ara, a young married woman whose affair with Aryeh, an older friend of her father's, grows into an all-consuming obsession. Told from her point of view, it is an intense and often uncomfortable study of desire, self-destruction and the family psychology behind them.

Originally published in Hebrew in 1997, it spent four months at the top of Israel's bestseller list and was later translated into English by Dalya Bilu and adapted as the film Love Life (Liebesleben), directed by Maria Schrader. Reviewers note its frank sexuality, dense biblical allusion and psychological insight, and the way it asks readers to stay with a narrator who is often self-absorbed.