Edna Mazya

This novel by the Israeli playwright Edna Mazya concerns a middle-aged astro-physicist professor Ilan who discovers his much younger wife Naomi is having an affair with a Russian drifter/documentary film maker Oded Safra. The love torn Ilan deeply effected by this event finds himself almost against his will following his wife and her lover all over town. He can hardly keep himself out of their way and eventually almost without planning it walks in on Oded and the two decide to talk it over. Problem is Oded is not at all sorry and not at all going to stop and his mildly mocking tone slowly gets on Ilan's nerves and Ilan finally becomes enraged when Oded produces a pipe that Naomi had once given to Ilan as a present and that Ilan had never liked but afterall it was his. Seeing it flaunted in front of him causes the normally mild mannered Ilan to temporarily lose his self control and before you know it he has a corpse on his hands. Ilan then has to get rid of the body and fix it to look like Oded has run out on Naomi. To do this he enlists his very cynical but also very diabolically clever mother Erna and the very sharp-witted Erna comes up with an ingenious plan. But the thing is Ilan just can't leave it alone and keeps putting himself in situations that call attention to his crime. For another Naomi is very suspicious about Ilan's whereabouts on the same night as Oded's disappearance. And on top of all that Ilan's best friend from childhood Anton (an Arab) is a very upright and efficient homicide detective. This is somewhat the setting for a very very good debut novel that also gives us a look at Israeli society and university life. It is cleverly plotted, philosophically astute and at times extremely funny. This is all delivered with a light and deft touch. Eventually the truth will come out between Ilan and Naomi but also a reconciliation that I would think might surprise most readers of the book. Whatever else it is very good entertainment.… (more)