Lovers and Strangers — David Grossman

Here are two accounts of love - of men and women, mothers and daughters, strangers who for a brief moment become intimate. Souls are bared, secrets are revealed and stories are told. In Frenzy, a man and a woman are driving through the night. Shaul is convinced his wife is having an affair. He feverishly imagines her with her lover: their talk, their lovemaking, every painful detail. Esther has never seen the human side of her brilliant and aloof brother-in-law. But tonight in the car, Shaul unburdens himself to her, recreating an affair he has never witnessed. Is he mad? Or has he divined the truth? Esther does not know but his wild and rich imaginings awaken in her, a distant memory of true love. In Another life is about a different - more redemptive - act of imagination. Rotem, a writer, has spent most of her life being angry at her mother - Nilli, the beautiful yoga teacher with her lovers and misadventures - who is so different from her awkward, unhappy daughter. But now Nilli is dying and Rotem, who has finally found happiness in London, must return to say goodbye. She arrives with a double-edged gift: a story about Nilli, full of accusations, empathy, love and forgiveness. David Grossman turns men and women inside out, writing about their innermost thoughts with immense depth and power. Tender, profound and erotic, these are extraordinary stories.