Paper Bride

Author: Nava Semel
Hybrid Publishers
Translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston

Historical, romantic and juicy … a wonderful combination.
Ophira Ben Arieh, the Hebrew Book Club, Chicago. USA


Seen through the eyes of an illiterate twelve-year-old boy, Nava Semel’s moving, at times lyrical fiction explores life in the Palestine of the 1930s – a world where a young Jew is prepared to undertake multiple marriages to threatened East European women for patriotic reasons alone; where a boy’s closest friends are a dog named after his hero Johnny Weissmuller (the screen Tarzan of blessed memory), his brother’s first wife, and the girl next door.

Semel weaves a rich evocation of love and pain and promises, written with eloquent humanity and verve.

“Like in a movie, Nava Semel leads her characters, illuminating scene by scene the different destinies of both the Jewish village people and their Arab neighbors. She presents also the funny sides of the life of these two communities.
A most moving and funny book. Silent sorrow goes through the text, hinting that the characters live under the shadow of the Holocaust.”

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