Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday: EVERY HOUSE NEEDS A BALCONY by Rina Frank

"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"
is hosted by Jill from

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .

by Rina Frank

Pub. Date: June 08, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardcover, 336pp
ISBN-13: 9780061714238
ISBN: 0061714232

An international bestseller and publishing phenomenon, Every House Needs a Balcony—dubbed the “Israeli Kite Runner” by The Bookseller—is the story of one family, one home, and the surprising arc of one woman’s life, from the poverty of her youth, to the glowing love and painful losses of her adult years. If you enjoy the novels of Dalia Sofer (The Septembers of Shiraz), Amos Oz (My Michael, A Tale of Love and Darkness), and A.B. Yehoshua (Mr Mani), you’ll find much to love in Rina Frank’s beautiful and bittersweet Every House Needs a Balcony.

Description (from the publisher):
Hailed as the "Israeli Kite Runner" (The Bookseller), this international bestseller and publishing phenomenon is the bittersweet story of one family, one home, and the surprising arc of one woman's life, from the poverty of her youth to the glowing love and painful losses of her adult years.

Braiding together past and present, Every House Needs a Balcony tells the story of a young Jewish girl—a child of Romanian immigrants—who lives with her family in the poverty-stricken heart of 1950s Haifa, Israel. Eight-year-old Rina, her older sister, and their parents inhabit a cramped apartment with a narrow balcony that becomes an intimate shared stage on which the joys and dramas of the building's daily life are played out. It is also a vantage point from which Rina witnesses the emergence of a strange new country, born from the ashes of World War II. Later, after years of living abroad with her wealthy Spanish husband in Barcelona, Rina, longing for the simple life she has missed, returns to the Haifa of her boisterous youth, a move that soothes her soul but ultimately endangers her marriage.

Beautifully told, rich with questions of identity, love, and survival, Every House Needs a Balcony is an unforgettable social and historical portrait of a neighborhood and a nation. Steeped in the colors and smells, laughter and tears, of Rina Frank's own childhood memories, it is a heartbreaking tale about the deepest meanings of home.

About the author (from the publisher):
The author of three novels, Rina Frank was born in Wadi Salib, the poorest neighborhood in Haifa. She worked as a technical architect, marketing director, and television producer with Israel's Channel 2 before founding her own production company, Matan TV Production. Every House Needs a Balcony is her first novel. She lives in Tel Aviv.

8 comments:

Jill said...

I love the title, the cover, the description...everything! Thanks for putting this one on my radar!!

Zibilee said...

Oh, this book sounds right up my alley! How could I pass up a book being touted as "The Israeli Kite Runner"? Thanks so much for posting this!

bermudaonion said...

That sounds fantastic! You've got me waiting for it now, too.

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

Sounds really deep!! Gorgeous cover, too!

Tammy G. said...

Enjoy your blog. There an award for you at http://tgteecher.blogspot.com :)

Mystica said...

I like the description! it sounds very good.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Gwen...thanks for visiting today. I had not heard of this book until I saw it just now. It sounds wonderful. Thanks so much

librarypat said...

Sounds like a book with an interesting perspective.
There is so much history and turmoil in this area. It will be good to see it from this viewpoint.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.