Olive Days
A Novel
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2.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the GLCA New Writers Award
Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize
Longlisted for the Reading the West Book Awards
A smoldering debut novel about a young mother in an Orthodox Jewish community of Los Angeles whose quest for authenticity erupts in a passionate affair following a night of wife swapping
Rina Kirsch is a young mother and Modern Orthodox Jew in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles. Dutifully keeping to the formidable expectations of a traditional household connects Rina with generations past and those to come. But a contradiction burns at her center: Rina is an atheist. She is also stymied in her life and marriage.
Hoping to reinvigorate their relationship, Rina’s husband convinces her to partake in a night of wife swapping with other Orthodox couples. Rather than preserve her marriage, however, the swap plunges Rina down a heady path that begins with a rekindled passion for painting and culminates in an intoxicating affair with Will Ochoa, her married art teacher. Clandestine rendezvous and stolen moments of ardor awaken Rina to an existence beyond the confining parameters of tradition, offering a glimpse at the possible life she left behind in the olive groves of her youth. As the blush of erotic thrill comes into sharp contrast with the complications of living a secret life, Rina must decide if it’s worth sacrificing everything she’s ever known to fully inhabit the uncharted landscape unfolding before her, one where her needs take precedence.
Told in the fevered tenor common to both lust and religious devotion, Olive Days is an unforgettable story of the agonizing choices women make to balance duty against desire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Emerson's effervescent debut, a conflicted 30-something woman contends with her religious obligations. Though Rina Kirsh is secretly an atheist, she performs all the exhausting rituals she was raised to fulfill in her Los Angeles Modern Orthodox Jewish community, from endless socializing and volunteering to cleaning, cooking, and baking for weekly Shabbos and religious holidays. She accepts her lot, though back when she studied art history and comparative religion at a small liberal arts college, she experimented freely with "gentile boys with names like Blaine and Kyle." Her devotion is upended after her husband convinces her to participate in an evening of wife-swapping with other Orthodox couples, claiming the practice falls within the tenets of Jewish law. Upset from feeling "traded" by her husband, she begins an affair with a Haredi rabbi, who welcomes Rina's superior knowledge of sex. Then, after registering for a painting class, she begins a passionate affair with her married Chicanx professor, and their determination to be together takes over the plot. Emerson provides a fascinating picture of Rina's commitments as a Modern Orthodox woman and goes deep into the psychological battle between her duty to uphold tradition and her life-affirming desire. The result is titillating and thought-provoking in equal measure. Agents: Amanda Orozco and Carolyn Forde, Transatlantic Agency.
