book recommendation Word from: Lilit Marcus

I just read a great book that had my head swimming, The Place Will Comfort You by Naama Goldstein. It's a collection of short stories set in America and Israel, with Israelis in America and Americans in Israel. They're all patchy and fluid, with plotlines about an American cousin visiting her Israeli cousins and inviting an Arab acquaintance over for dinner or an Israeli scholar who goes to Cape Cod to become an expert in cranberries. I often had to read the stories two or three times in order to figure out what was going on, yet they were simple and unadorned in style. I'd prefer a Jewish book like this one to a Portnoy's Complaint any day.