Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2006), Edition: First, 256 pages
Description
A woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of "gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery's owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. This man is at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman's life take shape--she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful--he yields to feelings of regret, atonement, and even love.--From publisher description.… (more)
Media reviews
The enormous weight of Jerusalem as metaphor is everywhere in Yehoshua’s fiction; and can be found again, and powerfully, in his remarkable new book, “A Woman in Jerusalem.”
This novel has about it the force and deceptive simplicity of a masterpiece: terse (or relatively so, given that
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Yehoshua’s novels are often long), eminently readable but resonantly dense. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
An anonymous woman is killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, and her body lies unidentified and unclaimed. A recent pay stub is found among her belongings, and a news weekly publishes an article, calling the company uncaring and negligent. The elderly owner calls on his human resources manager
The human resources manager, recently divorced, is dealing with problems of his own. But he has no choice. Researching personnel records, he discovers the woman was an immigrant from one of the countries in the former Soviet Union, and had come to the city for religious reasons. Although trained as an engineer, she was employed as a cleaning woman on the night shift. She was recently let go, but an apparent clerical error resulted in her continuing to receive wages. The human resources manager meets with her supervisor, learns some interesting details, and finds himself personally committed to locating the woman's family and making arrangements for burial. This becomes a journey of atonement and, while it was initially intended simply to clear the company's name, the human resources manager begins to view it as a personal quest, even though he did not know the woman personally.
Yehoshua's prose is terse and understated. The characters do not have names. Yet I found myself caught up in the story, sympathizing with the human resources manager, and mourning with the woman's family. I couldn't put this down and finished it in an afternoon.
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to uncover the truth and salvage the company's reputation. The human resources manager, recently divorced, is dealing with problems of his own. But he has no choice. Researching personnel records, he discovers the woman was an immigrant from one of the countries in the former Soviet Union, and had come to the city for religious reasons. Although trained as an engineer, she was employed as a cleaning woman on the night shift. She was recently let go, but an apparent clerical error resulted in her continuing to receive wages. The human resources manager meets with her supervisor, learns some interesting details, and finds himself personally committed to locating the woman's family and making arrangements for burial. This becomes a journey of atonement and, while it was initially intended simply to clear the company's name, the human resources manager begins to view it as a personal quest, even though he did not know the woman personally.
Yehoshua's prose is terse and understated. The characters do not have names. Yet I found myself caught up in the story, sympathizing with the human resources manager, and mourning with the woman's family. I couldn't put this down and finished it in an afternoon.
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LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
I seem to have liked this book much, much more than its other reviewers. What struck me most was the narrative of this story. It was so tight and telling about one particular situation. The flow of the story was missing no details (except for the names of the characters, but that only made the
A lapse by a (nameless) human resources manager in a large baking operation was named by a newspaper article as the reason for the death of a middle age woman in a terrorist bombing in the city of Jerusalem, Israel. The (nameless) owner of this company wants a no-holds-barred effort made to absolve his company of any wrong-doing and appoints the human resources manager to be in charge of this. How he goes about doing this is the story of his efforts to bring Yulia Ragayev (our deceased woman) to her final resting place.
I thought this story was brilliant. It is not about Israel or about Jerusalem, yet it is because we hear thoughts about the country and the city subtly spoken by many of the characters. Funny in places (not the laugh-out-loud kind, but the absurd kind), this story was a delight to read - especially the ending.
This is the kind of story in which the reader has to just suspend his disbelief in what happens and play along with the author. Enjoy the characters and the trip (which is a long one!). You will be justly rewarded.
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story much more creative and its telling much more difficult). It was so well directed.A lapse by a (nameless) human resources manager in a large baking operation was named by a newspaper article as the reason for the death of a middle age woman in a terrorist bombing in the city of Jerusalem, Israel. The (nameless) owner of this company wants a no-holds-barred effort made to absolve his company of any wrong-doing and appoints the human resources manager to be in charge of this. How he goes about doing this is the story of his efforts to bring Yulia Ragayev (our deceased woman) to her final resting place.
I thought this story was brilliant. It is not about Israel or about Jerusalem, yet it is because we hear thoughts about the country and the city subtly spoken by many of the characters. Funny in places (not the laugh-out-loud kind, but the absurd kind), this story was a delight to read - especially the ending.
This is the kind of story in which the reader has to just suspend his disbelief in what happens and play along with the author. Enjoy the characters and the trip (which is a long one!). You will be justly rewarded.
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
This is a thought-provoking book that will probably keep me thinking about it long after this reading. A woman was killed in a terrorist bombing incident in Jerusalem. The only clue to her identity is a pay stub, bearing her payroll ID number instead of her name. When the employers didn't come
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looking for her, a reporter came looking for them. They discovered that although she was still on payroll. The bakery's owner has the human resources manager investigate and then take care of handling details with the victim's family to try to avoid additional negative press. The plot takes interesting turns along the way. One of the most intriguing things about the novel is that the victim is about the only person with a name. Normally this would be confusing to a reader, but I never confused characters as I was reading. A very unusual and intriguing book! Show Less
LibraryThing member labfs39
An identified woman is killed in a Jerusalem suicide bombing, and the only clue to her identity is a pay stub from a prominent bakery. A journalist uses the situation to attack the bakery for callousness in allowing the woman's body to remain in the morgue unidentified. The owner of the bakery
At times a mystery story and at times a humorous take on the outcomes of our best efforts, the novel is also a commentary on how people can interact without ever truly seeing the other person. And how people can end up interconnected with the most unlikely of other people if we do open our eyes to the possibilities of human relationships.
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delegates responsibility of the situation to the company's human resources manager, who undertakes to solve the mystery of the woman's identity. At times a mystery story and at times a humorous take on the outcomes of our best efforts, the novel is also a commentary on how people can interact without ever truly seeing the other person. And how people can end up interconnected with the most unlikely of other people if we do open our eyes to the possibilities of human relationships.
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LibraryThing member whoot
The theme of this book is the responsibility of an employer for its employees. An engineer that immigrated to Jerusalem and works as a cleaning lady for a large bakery is killed in a bus bombing in Jerusalem. She remains in a coma and unidentified for over a week. Eventually a journalist makes a
The hardest part for me to understand was the premise that the employer should have noticed that the woman wasn’t coming to work. Once they determined she had been “fired” and thus wasn’t expected at work – well, who would have missed her?? But, I worry that this is a very western point of view, different in the Middle East where missing people are more alarming. Frankly, I thought it was more appalling that the family that were her neighbors and landlord didn’t try and found out where she had gone. Again, from my western point of view the neighbors would be the first to note her absence and might have followed up with an employer. Thus, I found the premise of the book somewhat unbelievable, though unsure if it is just my western perspective or a true challenge of the writing.
Still, I enjoyed the author’s writing, particularly the bizarre relationship between the company owner and the human resources director, and some of the adventures in the woman’s homeland. I found the descriptions of scenes particularly compelling – the woman’s home, the abandoned military post, areas of Jerusalem.
Overall, I really enjoyed the setting of this book and the premise was interesting but somehow it seemed unfinished.
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sensational story out of it by connecting her to the bakery by a paystub…and then slams the employer for not knowing that she was missing. The human resources director of the company, in response to the newspaper story, finds himself first uncovering why she was “fired” but still being paid, then in charge of the company’s response. This takes him off on an incredulous journey to the woman’s homeland, connecting with her son, and deciding where and how to bury the body.The hardest part for me to understand was the premise that the employer should have noticed that the woman wasn’t coming to work. Once they determined she had been “fired” and thus wasn’t expected at work – well, who would have missed her?? But, I worry that this is a very western point of view, different in the Middle East where missing people are more alarming. Frankly, I thought it was more appalling that the family that were her neighbors and landlord didn’t try and found out where she had gone. Again, from my western point of view the neighbors would be the first to note her absence and might have followed up with an employer. Thus, I found the premise of the book somewhat unbelievable, though unsure if it is just my western perspective or a true challenge of the writing.
Still, I enjoyed the author’s writing, particularly the bizarre relationship between the company owner and the human resources director, and some of the adventures in the woman’s homeland. I found the descriptions of scenes particularly compelling – the woman’s home, the abandoned military post, areas of Jerusalem.
Overall, I really enjoyed the setting of this book and the premise was interesting but somehow it seemed unfinished.
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LibraryThing member LukeS
"A Woman in Jerusalem" begins with the discovery by a baking tycoon that a former employee has died and her corpse has languished in the morgue for a week. Worse, a second-rate journalist eager for a wider readership has picked up and sensationalized the story to make the baking company look
The acting and somewhat reluctant HR director has a fairly cyincal view of the company owner's motivation when he is assigned a damage-control function. He investigates the case, and the first thing he learns is that everyone except himself thinks the woman who died was beautiful, engaging, and caring. Even though he interviewed her before her hire, the HR director cannot remember her. What follows is a trek from Israel to Russia - the corpse, the HR director, the journalist, and the dead woman's unruly son - to have the woman buried in her home town. What happens along the way is really the story here.
The trek means something different to each of our questors. The story deals principally with the HR director (all characters except the deceased are identified only by their titles), who knows something is missing from his life. On the way he is physically and morally purged, and returns to Jerusalem a new man. It's nothing very obvious, but we know of the change, nonetheless.
This is a story about individual and communal courage in the face of terrorism. It's also about the extraordinary steps that are sometimes necessary to maintain one's humanity under this constant threat. Mr. Yehoshua has spun an engaging, honest tale, and the sometimes stilted language is a purposeful thing, reflective of the mechanistic workings of modern corporations.
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bad.The acting and somewhat reluctant HR director has a fairly cyincal view of the company owner's motivation when he is assigned a damage-control function. He investigates the case, and the first thing he learns is that everyone except himself thinks the woman who died was beautiful, engaging, and caring. Even though he interviewed her before her hire, the HR director cannot remember her. What follows is a trek from Israel to Russia - the corpse, the HR director, the journalist, and the dead woman's unruly son - to have the woman buried in her home town. What happens along the way is really the story here.
The trek means something different to each of our questors. The story deals principally with the HR director (all characters except the deceased are identified only by their titles), who knows something is missing from his life. On the way he is physically and morally purged, and returns to Jerusalem a new man. It's nothing very obvious, but we know of the change, nonetheless.
This is a story about individual and communal courage in the face of terrorism. It's also about the extraordinary steps that are sometimes necessary to maintain one's humanity under this constant threat. Mr. Yehoshua has spun an engaging, honest tale, and the sometimes stilted language is a purposeful thing, reflective of the mechanistic workings of modern corporations.
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LibraryThing member fourbears
This is a fast-paced, plot dominated novel that rings lots of bells and leaves the reader at the end laughing out loud but also seriously exploring the issues it raises. The main character is “the human resources manager” of a large Jerusalem bakery. He used to be the top salesman but was
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transferred when extensive travel interfered with his home life. His wife divorced him anyway. The main focus of the novel is a corpse—and oddly the only character with a name—Yulia Ragayev, a non-Jewish immigrant from an unnamed Slavic country who came to Jerusalem with a Jewish lover who abandoned her. Her son went back to his father but Yulia remained, employed as a cleaner (though she a trained engineer) at the bakery. She comes to the human resources manager’s attention when a weekly scandal rag accuses the company of “gross negligence” in not caring what happened to her. Her body has been in the morgue, unidentified, a week after she was killed in a terrorist attack. The reporter found a pay stub from the bakery in her possession.Other main characters include the owner of the bakery who wants his human resources manager to turn around the negative publicity the company will get from the reporter’s soon-to-be-published article, the human resources manager’s assistant (with her husband and baby to say nothing of the human resources manager’s daughter and ex-wife) as well as the owner’s assistant and a night manager who was Yulia’s boss, and who, it turns out, is “responsible” for the fact that Yulia had a pay stub but was not in fact working at the bakery. There’s the reporter and the photographer and eventually the honorary consul (located in the unnamed Slavic country) and her husband. Oh, yes, Yulia’s son and her ex-husband.The situation escalates as the investigation progresses. It turns out that Yulia was beautiful, fair with unusual Tartar eyes. The night manager had let her go because he’d become obsessed with her and the human resources manager, even though he refuses to look at her corpse, becomes similarly obsessed. He is “blamed” for the situation—he is after all the human resources manager and as such responsible for any irregularities connected with personnel. And it also turns out that he interviewed Yulia—he has his notes on what she told him—without remembering either her person or her plight. The escalating situation raises touchy issues connected with what happens to immigrants and the effects of living with terrorism as well as nationality and what that means. Even more it raises issues of responsibility for what happens to individuals in a complex society.I won’t give you any more of the plot—you need to read it for yourself. It’s a quick read, but one that will stick with you. Show Less
LibraryThing member suesbooks
I liked this book, and the indirect way the story was told. I found the content interesting and cared that the protagonist would accomplish his task of burying the victim of terrorism. I also was impressed by how real many of the characters seemed.
LibraryThing member AramisSciant
A seemingly simple storyline that leaves a lot of food for thought about what it takes to be humane in far from humanistic circumstances. Reminded me of home and made me want to read the original Hebrew.
LibraryThing member maryreinert
I read this book many years ago as a young woman and loved it. Now many years later, it still is a wonderful story of a young girl growing up surrounded by poverty but maintaining an innocence of heart. There is not one ounce of cynicism in Francie's entire body; something that is rare today.
I read
This book is not a page turner, has dated dialogue and writing style, and is probably not for everyone. However, it is a warm, pleasant, inspiring read that should at least be tasted.
I read
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many of the negative reviews from young people who have been required to read the book. It is so difficult for them to get past the differences of today's age and then; however, hopefully some will have inspiring teachers who will be able to get them through the details enough in order to see the universal story of perseverance and strength of family.This book is not a page turner, has dated dialogue and writing style, and is probably not for everyone. However, it is a warm, pleasant, inspiring read that should at least be tasted.
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LibraryThing member paakre
Brilliant treatment of a man on a mission to find out who the victim of a suicide bomber really is. Brings a modern sensibility to a classic topic: what becomes of the nameless lost to senseless war?
LibraryThing member suesbooks
I read this a second time for book group and of course found it clearer. I also was much more aware of the metaphors, but still am not sure of the overall metaphor. The book tells us a lot about humanity without being didactic.
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Difficult as it is to admit, it required over 150 pages for me to recognize that only the deceased woman of the title was actually afforded a name, everyone else had a title or a relation to the protagonist. This creates an intenional level of abstraction, wich is effective to a point, but shorns
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away the humanity of a story which actually points back to Antigone. I don't know, I expected more. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
"A Woman in Jerusalem" is the second book I've read by this author: I read "The Lover" a while ago. I may not read another, but this is still a solid effort, and reading it made the author's preoccupations and habits a bit clearer to me. A few recurring elements: marriages in distress, a society
In "A Woman in Jerusalem", as in "The Lover", simple tasks stretch out into lengthy projects and easy questions slowly become complex, emotionally trying mysteries. An effort to limit the fallout of some bad publicity, leads the main character to investigate whether the titular woman was, in fact, employed the bakery that the book's main character works for. "A Woman in Jerusalem" slowly becomes a meditation on what we owe -- and what we can really know about -- the strangers that live among us. I also suspect that the curious quest that our main character has been assigned functions as way to cope with widespread and unrelenting horror by making sure that at least one problem -- the final resting place of a non-Israeli victim -- has been resolved as far as is humanly possible. It'd be easy to write an essay on this topic, or to address them directly in the text, but I was rather impressed by the fact that most of these themes are addressed through the book's plot. I'm sure that some readers may feel that this book would be improved by a slightly faster pace, but I rather enjoyed the fact that events in "A Woman in Jerusalem" unfolded at a speed that felt natural and human. Similarly, the novel's themes revealed themselves as the plot inched forward. This doesn't make for a thrilling read -- which, I suppose, is another thing that would set it apart from detective fiction -- but it's a good of example of an author knowing to show rather than tell. I may not be Yehoshua's ideal reader, but this one is still worth checking out.
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under constant stress, and a mystery that slowly comes to obsess the novel's protagonist. In this case, it's the identity, employment status, and, in the end, the basic humanity of an Russian woman who emigrated to Israel only to die in a terrorist bombing. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the author was a fan of detective fiction: as I read, I could feel the bones of a whodunit -- as it were -- poking through the text. But, as in "The Lover, Yehoshua also writes a few dreams into the narrative: he may have wanted to remind his readers that his characters do more than just move his narrative along. In "A Woman in Jerusalem", as in "The Lover", simple tasks stretch out into lengthy projects and easy questions slowly become complex, emotionally trying mysteries. An effort to limit the fallout of some bad publicity, leads the main character to investigate whether the titular woman was, in fact, employed the bakery that the book's main character works for. "A Woman in Jerusalem" slowly becomes a meditation on what we owe -- and what we can really know about -- the strangers that live among us. I also suspect that the curious quest that our main character has been assigned functions as way to cope with widespread and unrelenting horror by making sure that at least one problem -- the final resting place of a non-Israeli victim -- has been resolved as far as is humanly possible. It'd be easy to write an essay on this topic, or to address them directly in the text, but I was rather impressed by the fact that most of these themes are addressed through the book's plot. I'm sure that some readers may feel that this book would be improved by a slightly faster pace, but I rather enjoyed the fact that events in "A Woman in Jerusalem" unfolded at a speed that felt natural and human. Similarly, the novel's themes revealed themselves as the plot inched forward. This doesn't make for a thrilling read -- which, I suppose, is another thing that would set it apart from detective fiction -- but it's a good of example of an author knowing to show rather than tell. I may not be Yehoshua's ideal reader, but this one is still worth checking out.
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LibraryThing member Smits
I must confess that I think this novel went over my head because I do not know what it is like to be Israeli . There are rich layers in this novel.we are responsible for caring for our fellow man regardless of who they are even if we don’t know who they are. The Human Resources Manager made to
Maybe I got more out of this than I thought,
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handle the “ situation “ of a dead employee learns about humanity and what it means to be human. In the climate today close to Jerusalem , in the Gaza Strip, we all need to but aside our differences and care for our fellow man. Maybe I got more out of this than I thought,
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Subjects
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2006)
Wingate Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2007)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2006)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2006)
Around the world in 80 books (Israel)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
256 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
0151012261 / 9780151012268
Local notes
2006-07 Reading Circle selection