The Extra

"From the internationally acclaimed author of A Woman in Jerusalem, a novel about a musician who returns home and finds the rhythm of her life interrupted and forever changed Noga, 42, a divorcee from Jerusalem, is a harpist with an orchestra in the Netherlands. When her father dies suddenly, she is summoned home by her brother to help make decisions in urgent family and personal matters, among them whether to keep a rent-controlled apartment even as they are placing their reluctant mother in an assisted-living facility, and facing her former husband -- with whom she would have no children -- who still loves her passionately despite being remarried with two children. During her imposed three-month residence in Jerusalem, Noga's brother finds her work playing an extra in movies, television, and opera. These new identities undermine the firm boundaries of behavior heretofore protected by the music she plays and Noga, always an extra in someone els's story, takes charge of the plot. Yehoshua at his liveliest storytelling best, a bravura performance. "--