Excerpt from A Woman in Jerusalem by A B. Yehoshua, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

But the owner was too worried about his humanity to relent. No, there was no time at all. The paper, distributed free along with the weekend editions of the national tabloids, went to press Wednesday night. If their response wasn’t in by then, it would have to wait another week; meanwhile they would be open to all kinds of accusations. If the resource manager didn’t wish to take care of this— and thoroughly— let him say so. There was no problem finding someone else— perhaps to run the human resources division, too . . .

“Just a minute. I didn’t mean to . . .” The casually delivered ultimatum stung and bewildered him. “What am I supposed to do with my daughter? Who’ll take care of her? You’ve met her mother,” he added bitterly. “She’ll murder me . . .”

“That’s who’ll take care of her,” the owner interrupted, pointing to his office manager, who turned red at the thought of being entrusted with the chore.

“What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean? She’ll drive your daughter and look after her like her own child. And now let’s roll up our sleeves and prove that we’re as human as the weasel . . . that we care. For God’s sake, my good man, is there any choice? No, there isn’t.

© 2004 Abraham B. Yehoshua English translation © 2006 by Hillel Halkin

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