Where I Am

(Paperback)

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"Serves up heaping portions of yearning, passion, alienation, and regret, andestablishes Dana Shem-Ur as one of the rising stars of the new Israeli literature."Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofThe Netanyahus

A piercing novel about life abroad in a cultural setting not ones own: Reut is an Israeli translator living in Paris with a French husband and their child. Shes made sacrifices for her family but now feels a simmering discontent and estrangement that erupts at a festive dinner party with affluent, intellectual friends. During the sumptuous meal, she navigates a tangle of cultural codes with which shes never been fully at ease. This is a novel about big life choices that examines a womans attitudes toward belonging to a man, to a culture, to a language.Where I Amis an intimate, witty book portraying a profoundly human yearning to stop everything, to lay down ones head, and to feelif only for a momentat home.

Reviews

"The poignant account of a translator struggling to translate herself into a multitude of uncomfortable roles in a language and culture not her own. Where I Am serves up heaping portions of yearning, passion, alienation, and regret, and establishes Dana Shem-Ur as one of the rising stars of the new Israeli literature."--Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus"Where I Am is a phenomenally cinematic and sneaky novel. It simmers, meanders, and explodes. I recommend this book to anyone thinking about identity, culture, gender, and home. A unique work that reminds us what a novel can be."
--Chloe Caldwell, author of Women and The Red Zone

"In unfailingly elegant prose, Where I Am makes us peek at the consciousness of a foreigner who is herself trying to peek at the consciousnesses of French natives she treats with derision and anguish. It's a funny and poignant novel, strikingly resonant with the condition of foreignness plaguing so many around the world."
--Eva Illouz, author of Why Love Hurts and The End of Love
"A formidable, stirring, and beautifully written novel, spectacular in its ability to penetrate the souls of its characters, juggling love, power dynamics, and staggeringly human ambitions while offering an ironic examination of the social and cultural codes of our time."
--Nir Baram, author of World Shadow and Good People"An impressive and mature debut about a woman's search for identity and for her place in life. Or rather, her places in life: in society, in her career, in her relationship, her motherhood, her body and her sexuality, as well as her actual geographical location. A pleasurable read."
--Assaf Gavron, author of The Hilltop "A beautiful debut novel, sensitive and fragile ... with naughty touches and satirical stings."--Maariv

Author Bio

Dana Shem-Ur lived in Paris for three years and obtained a master's degree in philosophy from the cole Normale Suprieure. She is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Tel Aviv University who translates from French, Italian, and Chinese into Hebrew.

Yardenne Greenspan has translated writing by Israeli authors including Shemi Zarhin, Yitzhak Gormezano-Goren, Rana Werbin, Yaakov Shabtai, and Gon Ben Ari.