Alona Kimhi’s Lily La Tigresse takes place in present-day Israel. Lily, the pro­tag­o­nist and nar­ra­tor, is fun­ny and yet poet­ic. Ear­ly on in the sto­ry, the read­er finds her on a plane, where she meets an inter­est­ing boy named Taro, who intro­duces her to young love. The two lose touch for a while, but reunite one fate­ful night, in a hotel room. When Lily flies back to Tel Aviv she finds a crate with a tiger cub inside, sent to her by Taro, who works for a zoo. The tiger, which acts as Taro’s way of return­ing to Israel with Lily, changes her life. Lily’s friend Ninush, a Russ­ian pros­ti­tute who is in a phys­i­cal­ly abu­sive rela­tion­ship, helps take care of the tiger cub. So does their old­er friend, Michaela, a moth­er of four who dri­ves a taxi. As Lily gets bored with her dai­ly rou­tine — work­ing as a den­tal hygien­ist and fail­ing to find true love as a woman — she goes out and has a sex-filled night. She goes to bars, lures men in, and sleeps with them in the shadi­est of pub­lic places. This one-night ad­venture turns into a sex­u­al ben­der. Maybe she secret­ly wants Ninush’s life, maybe she pines for Taro. In any case, the chap­ter of cop­u­la­tion and oth­er unusu­al scenes make this book a tremen­dous read, filled with heartache, sweet­ness, and plen­ty of laughs. It is a sto­ry of a girl try­ing to find her way. It is a sto­ry of three women nav­i­gat­ing intense rela­tion­ships, their careers, and the care of a tiger cub.

Relat­ed Content

• Read­ing List: Dalkey Archive Press Hebrew Lit­er­a­ture Series
• Read­ing List: Con­tem­po­rary Israeli Literature
• Read­ing List: Israel Clas­sics