Closing the Sea by Yehudit Katzir

Dreams, memories, cinematic reality and a fertile imagination all feature in Yehudit Katzir’s four novellas that comprise this volume. In Schlaff stunde, the author describes her first love, who is her cousin. Fellini’s Shoes tells of a hotel waitress who dreams of becoming a movie star, who believes she can make her dream come true with the help of a failed director who once met Fellini. Disneyel is a daughter’s monologue to her unconscious mother who is lying in a hospital bed. Closing the Sea tells the story of a mousy teacher who goes to Tel Aviv to meet a successful childhood friend only to be disappointed by the friend’s apathy. When the sweet fantasy bursts, she is left with her memories.

Born in Haifa in 1963, Yehudit Katzir studied literature and cinema at Tel Aviv University. At present, she works as an editor for Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Siman Kriah Publishing House and teaches creative writing. Katzir, a bestselling author in Israel, has published two collections of stories and novellas, two novels and two children`s books. In addition to literary prizes for individual stories, Katzir has received the Book Publishers` Association`s Platinum and Gold Book Prizes, the Prime Minister`s Prize (1996), and the French WIZO Prize for Matisse Has the Sun in His Belly (2004).