And This is the Light

And This is the Light, is the first English edition of Lea goldberg's only novel, published in 2011 to coincide with what would have been Goldberg's 100th birthday.  It is set in the summer of 1931, when twenty-year-old Nora Krieger returns to her small-town home in Lithuania from university in Berlin ready to present her new, mature self.  Instead, her time at home becomes a period of unrequited love, difficult memories and introspection, when she must accept the limits imposed on her by a class-conscious, increasingly anti-Semitic society.  And This is the Light is a lyrical coming-of-age story by one of Israel's most important writers.  Translated by Barbara Harshav and with an introduction and afterword by Nili Scharf Gold.