Translations

'Breathless, bold, searching and passionate. A really remarkable debut' SAMANTHA HARVEY

Arriving in Tel Aviv in May, 2014, Lila Ruth is forced to admit that the gap year she had planned isn’t going to happen. Her dream of a summer spent on a kibbutz, living and working under the desert sun, is quickly dashed.

Unwilling to retreat home and scrabbling for a new plan, she accepts an unusual gig from an older man: she will spend the summer translating his novel from Hebrew - a language she doesn’t speak - into English. The project becomes an exercise in finding and making meaning, opening up dangerous cracks in Lila Ruth’s understanding of herself and of the world. 

Desperate for connection, she finds herself roaming across Israel and Palestine – and, suddenly, falling in love. But love alone is not salvation; to survive this summer Lila Ruth must finally reckon with the choices she’s made.