Podcasts religion Israel in Translation Petty Business: A Tale of Two Families in 1980s Israel

Petty Business: A Tale of Two Families in 1980s Israel

Published: June 13, 2018, 5 a.m.

b"

\\u201cWhen a writer is motivated by empathy rather than sarcasm, his humor has the power to reach deep into the heart,\\u201d Omri Herzog noted in his 2012 Haaretz review of Yirmi Pinkus' second novel, Petty Business, which is a tale of two families, related by marriage, who are shop owners in 1980s Israel.

The content is daring and unusual\\u2014middle-aged, petit bourgeois families are not the usual protagonists of Israeli literature, but Pinkus, who is also a graphic artist known for his humor, delivers a strangely compelling story. Marcela reads a section from near the beginning, in Yardenne Greenspan and Evan Fallenberg\\u2019s new English translation.

Text:\\xa0Petty Business by Yirmi Pinkus. Translated by Evan Fallenberg and Yardenne Greenspan. Syracuse University Press, 2017.

"