The Betrayers: A Novel
David Bezmozgis "The Betrayers: A Novel"
Little, Brown and Company | English | September 23, 2014 | ISBN: 0316284335 | 240 pages | azw, epub, lrf, mobi | 2,1 mb
Little, Brown and Company | English | September 23, 2014 | ISBN: 0316284335 | 240 pages | azw, epub, lrf, mobi | 2,1 mb
This novel feels so real and current. Crimea, Yalta, scandal, Israel, Russia, the West Bank of the Jordan. For nearly four years, Yitzhak and Adina Rosenberg would send a Rosh Hashana gift basket to Baruch Kotler. Both were former Soviet Refuseniks, emigres to Israel, although Baruch (Boris Solomonivich in his Soviet days) ended up in the gulag prison system. Now in Israel, Baruch is a famous politician. But they probably won't be sending a gift this Jewish New Year; Baruch is the subject of a massive political scandal, and he has taken the Rosenberg's young daughter as his mistress.
The novel opens in a hotel lobby in Yalta. Baruch and his mistress have flown off to Crimea to escape the press and scandal. There is no room at the inn. Should they try the homestay rentals offered by the babushkas in the bus station? Will anyone recognize Baruch, once the most famous refusenik? This is a delicious novel that not only tells an intriguing story, but the sentence structures, ideas, and language make me want to don a swimsuit and swim laps through the refreshing paragraphs.