Reality and fiction blend in an ingenious short novel from the celebrated author of A Tale of Love and Darkness - witty, elegiac, playful and sexy

An unnamed author waits in a bar in Tel Aviv on a stifling hot night. He is there to give a reading of his work but as he sits, bored, he begins to conjure up the life stories of the people he meets, not least Ricky, an equally bored but seductive waitress. Later, when the reading is underway, he weaves stories around the audience and panel before asking the professional reader for a drink. She declines and the Author walks away, only to climb the steps to her flat later that night. Or does he?

In Amos Oz’s beguiling, intriguing story the reader hardly knows where reality ends and invention begins…