Literary fiction too often misses the mark in balancing prose with pacing, and I would certainly count this book as an example of that. Perhaps an issue with the translation, or perhaps a disconnect between my taste and a book that others would find very good. All I can say is that I had a difficult time forcing myself to be engaged with this story, even though I found the concept interesting. Not the worst book ever, but not one I would recommend.

I loved the language in the beginning of the book, but I lost interest toward the last 50 pages.

Beautiful writing that really veered off my path of interest far too many times. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I can tell you this: I really wanted to love the book based on the synopsis and the author's (and translator's) delicate manipulation of the written word. Ultimately, this just didn't work for me. I will happily read anything else I can get my hands on by Shehori or, for that matter, translator Hasak-Lowy.

I was so fortunate to be offered an ARC by NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, and am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to read this book. I hope you give this book a try.

I was expecting much better from this one. The original version (this was translated from Hebrew) has won awards and been highly praised. However, I just did not connect with it at all.

The premise was really good and there were parts of the story that I think gave the structure some excellent bones, but the execution was just not there for me. The writing was choppy and sometimes made absolutely no sense. The word usage was often a bit awkward and sentence structures did not feel right.

The organization of the plot caused me a lot of problems and I think kept me from bonding with any of the characters. Things moved so slowly that I just couldn't connect or be bothered to care. I wanted this to be a lot more than I was given. The outline version would still draw my interest now that I know how the book goes, the writing just didn't flesh the story out in a way that worked for me. I think it had promise, but just did not get there. Once again, maybe if I had been able to read it in the original language my experience would have been different.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

I actually really loved the prose and the way this was written. It's wonderful writing. But every person in this book is utterly insufferable. I enjoyed very few pages of the book overall because of this and struggled to put together any well meaning thoughts about the experience.

Because like I said the writing itself is wonderful, the structure of the sentences, the choice of words, the little patterns that come out of the writing.

But the stroy and people in this story I couldn't stand.

Two stars because I liked Dima and Anna.

Couldn’t get all the way thru this one but what I read before returning was interesting and unique.

Wow, not my cup of tea at all. I really wanted to like it because it was translated from Hebrew and the main characters are deaf. The writing is very poetic and was difficult for me to follow. I also haatee unreliable narrators, so I really couldn't tell you what happened in this book.