When Life Begins
WHEN LIFE BEGINS by HANA GOLDBERG
After her husband doesn’t come back from work, Yearnie Illusie begins to search for him but ends up finding herself instead. At the age of 40, she stops living her life on auto-pilot and becomes a DJ.
Reviews
"A novel written with powerful flow and precision. There is constant tension in it. It is a journey which is trippy but also serious, witty and funny, bold and frantic, erotic, and most of all feministic.” Maariv
"Hana Goldberg throws words in the air and they explode. From the blast she builds sentences, and from the fragments of free associations forms the outline of a character. As the lyricist behind such mega hits as 'Holding On To Air', 'Amsterdam' and others, Goldberg knows that words are like music, and that through rhythm one can make the reader dance between the pages. Goldbreg’s writing is feminine in the sense that her heroine is a woman, but it is a woman with big balls. A woman that in spite of her confusion and fears, has the capacity to transform herself and the strength to become independent and control her own destiny. It is a rhythmic and joyful novel about a weak woman with strength. A story that soars through the air, taking the reader on a sweet trip with candy of exploding words.". The City
"A captivating, fresh and original novel, both from the aspect of the psychological structure of the characters and from the aspect of its artistic form. Goldberg’s writing style is sweeping, invigorating, flowing and current. Goldberg has a great ear for the spoken living language and she sails through it like a fish in water. Phrases she wrote in her popular songs such as “There are no Hebrew-speaking horses” and “The gap between the man and his shirt” have already become idioms in the Hebrew language. This novel has a winning combination of qualities, being an intelligent book ‘about life’ which does not take itself too seriously, easy to identify with and wonderfully written.” Professor Yigal Schwartz, head of the Department of Literature at the University of Jerusalem
"Goldberg is a wickedly talented writer. Her great ear for the spoken word, musicality and sense of rhythm already stood out in her first novel NOT A WORD ABOUT LOVE and they are even more enjoyable in WHEN LIFE BEGINS. Goldberg excels with her inventive language and her sense of bitter irony, and at the same time she manages to touch feelings, with captivating honesty and compassion". Globes