Judas

In 1959, Shmuel Ash finds work as a caregiver for a brilliant but cantankerous old man named Gershom Wald in Jerusalem. There is, however, a third mysterious presence in his new home. Atalia Abravanel, the daughter of a deceased Zionist leader, a beautiful woman in her forties, entrances young Shmuel even as she keeps him at a distance. The old Jerusalem stone house, haunted by tragic history and now home to the three misfits and their intricate relationship, reveals its secrets. Piece by piece, Judas is Amos Oz’s most powerful novel in decades — an allegory for the state of Israel and for the biblical tale from which it draws its title.