Queen Solomon

Description

It’s just another boring summer for our teenaged narrator—until Barbra arrives. An Ethiopian Jew, Barbra was brought to Israel at age five, a part of Operation Solomon, and now our narrator’s well-intentioned father has brought her, as a teen, to their home for the summer. Soon our narrator finds himself immersed in compulsive psychosexual games with her, as she binge-drinks and lies to his family. Queen Solomon is another masterful take on the politics of sex, race, and power from the author of the Believer Book Award–winning Maidenhead.

Reviews

 “Berger’s prose is entrancing and lacerating; the deeply inquisitive and disturbing story she so commandingly tells is, by turns, hilarious, obscene, horrifying, and tragic as her damaged characters thrash out the paradoxes of Jewish identity; Israel’s standing as both sanctuary and prison; and humankind’s endlessly intricate entanglement with power and pain.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist

"Raw, powerful, political, and compassionate, albeit with sharp elbows."– Amber Sparks