PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
A native of Jerusalem, Hila Blum has also lived in Hawaii, Paris and New York. Originally a journalist, for the past fourteen years she has worked as an editor at Kinneret Zmora-Bitan, one of Israel's leading publishing houses. Her first novel, The Visit, was shortlisted for the 2012 Sapir Prize. How to Love Your Daughter, her second novel, won the same prize in 2022.
This mesmerizing, quietly harrowing novel begins with a mother’s complete estrangement from her adult daughter and works backward to reveal the ways that maternal love can strangle when it was only trying to cradle, can recklessly misdirect when it wanted to protect. Excellent and unforgettable -- Ann Packer, author of THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE and THE DIVE FROM CLAUDEN'S PIER I am not exaggerating when I say that there is a similarity between (Alice) Munro’s and Blum's writing – describing entire lives, understatedly, humbly and reservedly . . . Both Blum and Munro are interested in people first and foremost . . . a gradual seeping of emotions and actions; There are no villains nor angels, but rather a human complexity, to be identified with and feared… These possibilities – for introspection, to open for discussion that which was deemed an axiom, to understand the other – these are the exact signs of fine literature -- Noa Limone, Haaretz This book wisely strums the delicate strings which connect parents and their children, winds them well and produces an agonizing and alluring piece of music -- Yoni Livneh, Yediot Aharonot
