A Man and a Woman and a Man: A Novel

A powerful novel about intertwined mourning and passiona critically-acclaimed bestseller from Israel. This is the story of Hamutal, a married woman who has an affair with a stranger she meets in the nursing home where her mother and his father are dying. With two daughters, a husband, a job as editor of a psychology journal, and a home to run, Hamutal has always juggled her duties. But taking care of her mother, a Holocaust survivor now suffering from Alzheimer's disease, adds a nearly insupportable degree of responsibility and a burden of grief. Daily visits bring back her own loveless childhood and her mother's suppressed war experiences. Across the hall, a man in a green jacket tenderly cares for his dying father. Although they have hardly spoken, Hamutal becomes obsessed with him. Only he seems able to transport her from the tragedy of her everyday life. As his father approaches death and as Hamutal's husband and daughters become increasingly distant, an intense love affair begins. With rare insight and sensitivity, Liebrecht captures the lovers' passion, tinged with the desperation of watching their parents' decline. Deeply conscious of how history, psychology, desire, and will make up the whole person, she navigates among the various relationships as she follows the affair to its sudden end. A Man and a Woman and a Man confirms Liebrecht's place as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Hebrew literature. Its translation into German, Italian, and now into superbly rendered English extends Liebrecht's reputation and readership worldwide.