Ruby Namdar’s second novel, “The Ruined House”, appeared in its English translation in 2017. Set in New York, the book centers on an esteemed professor and is the only novel by an expat to win Israel’s prestigious Sapir Prize. It is uncannily timely in that it dovetails with the #MeToo movement and the close scrutiny that the film industry, media, sports, academia and politics are undergoing right now for their participation in systemic sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination.

Here is an excerpt form the novel:

Cohen specialized in elegantly naming his courses, which attracted students from every department and were always fully enrolled. It was more than just their names, though. His courses were well conceived and well rounded. For all their incisiveness, their main strength lay in the aesthetic harmony of their superbly formulated interpretative models, which were easy to understand and absorb. In general, “elegant” was the adjective most commonly applied to anything bearing the imprint of Professor Andrew P. Cohen.

Music:
Demian by Tatran

Text: Ruby Namdar, The Ruined House. Translated by Hillel Halkin. Harper Collins, 2017.