Friendly Fire

Life in the Ya'ari family is full, complicated and often humorous, but beyond it lies a fragile society deeply uneasy with itself and badly scarred, with each family harbouring its own ghosts.Ever-creative, A.B. Yehoshua's short, interwoven chapters create a duet-like narrative which penetrates deeply into human relationships. He taps into the psyche of the reader as he taps into the psyche of his country, and we emerge altered by what we have read.Yehoshua ... has been one of his country's most vital chroniclers and critics. Ethan Bronner, The New York Times Book ReviewYehoshua has long been praised for his Faulknerian novels and though the two rather unexceptional middle class Israeli families in Friendly Fire lack the gothic appurtenances of the Snopeses and Compsons, his story is not short on sound and fury. Eric Banks, Financial TimesNone of Yehoshua's books, no matter how personal, is without political, historical and religious importance. Friendly Fire is no exception. Haaretz