Reading these striking stories, one wonders about the Israelis who lock their doors against external evil, but never stop to question their own morality…[Three Floors Up ] and its conflicted apartment dwellers stayed with me long after I finished reading. "You can never tell what goes on with people behind their reinforced metal doors," says Arnon, the father on the first floor. Freud argues that you can't even tell what's going on behind your own locked door, or inside your own head. Freud's name is spoken, in a rare explanatory line. But luckily, for the most part, the story speaks for itself. The characters whisper confessions to us; we decide whether to judge or to forgive their sins—which are, of course, variations of our own.
The New York Times Book Review - Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
08/14/2017
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST —NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW —LIBRARY JOURNAL, * STARRED REVIEW* Three Floors Up , brilliantly captures how the landscape of a marriage can become tenuous and dark while parents struggle with children who seem to need a little extra help. His three loosely interwoven stories take place in an upper-middle-class apartment building in Tel Aviv where neighbors observe one another quietly, grappling with their own growing desperation.” —JERUSALEM POST —KIRKUS REVIEWS Neuland ) returns with a transporting novel about the furtive lives of three tenants in a suburban Tel Aviv apartment building…Nevo’s narrators range from despicable to endearing, and he handles each with a sure hand, resulting in a multifaceted narrative that is easy to be carried away by.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY —BOOKLIST a page-turner…Nevo’s talent for embedding telling character traits and cultural anecdotes through quick one-liners is perhaps his greatest asset. The prose sings in places, and Three Floors Up is difficult to put down.” —JEWISH NEWS SERVICE —WORLD LITERATURE TODAY —BOOKREPORTER Three Floors Up plays with the form of the novel itself and keeps the reader absorbed in its sets of triads.” —JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL Three Floors Up by Israeli novelist Eshkol Nevo offers an intriguing and layered view into life in Tel Aviv. The novel centers on three families living on separate floors of an apartment building on the outskirts of the city. Through the lives and interwoven stories of the three families, Nevo presents a broad and complex portrait of Israeli society.” —SIGNATURE READS —JEWISH REVIEW MEDIA —Amos Oz, internationally bestselling author of A Tale of Love and Darkness Three Floors Up , an economical yet masterful invention of three households in a suburban Tel Aviv building...Written simply but imaginatively, translated fluidly by Sondra Silverston, each story is an evening’s reading because you won’t want to stop.” —AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD —Etgar Keret —Roddy Doyle "This is a thought-provoking book, but it remains very accessible and fun to read. Although each section can be read independently, it is anything but a loose collection of stories. There is a uniform atmosphere of mystery and foreboding, with a barely concealed threat of violence. Readers will need to read the novel in its entirety to fully appreciate the gradual build-up of unease, while the ending provides a solution for some, but not for all." —NECESSARY FICTION —KVELLER “The novels of Eshkol Nevo, son of ex Israeli PM Levi Eshkol, rise above simple storytelling—-his creative approach is multi-dimensional, his narrative multi-layered and his characters are always colourful and memorable.” —THE SWANSEA BAY
★ 09/01/2017
2017-07-17
