What do you think?
Rate this book
יריתי באמריקה
גיבורת "יריתי באמריקה", ישראלית ברילוקיישן בארצות הברית, נחושה להשאיר את העבר מאחוריה ולחפש את מקומה בעבודה ובחיים שמחוצה לה. מה שנראה כסיפור של הגירה והסתגלות לתרבות חדשה, חושף זווית אחרת כשהיא מצטרפת אל חבריה לעבודה למסעות ציד בארץ המושלגת – ספק הרפתקה, ספק ריטואל חברתי.
במהלך אותם מסעות ציד היא מפתחת יחסים יוצאי דופן עם אחד מעמיתיה, דייוויד, שמדריך ומלווה אותה. הגיבורה יורה שוב ושוב, משכללת ומדייקת את יכולות הציד שלה, ונשאבת לתוך עולם של אלימות מתכתית וחושניות אפלה. יחסיה עם דייוויד מעמיקים ככל שמעמדה המקצועי וביטחונה הפנימי מתערערים. בעוד היא לוקחת על עצמה את תפקיד הציידת-הרודפת, הבחירות שבחרה, או לא בחרה, רודפות אותה. מסעות הציד עם דייוויד הופכים למקום היציב היחיד בחייה של הגיבורה, המחפשת אחיזה בעולם – עד שיום אחד הכול משתנה.
לרומן "יריתי באמריקה" פנים רבות: הוא עוסק בחיי העבודה ובדינמיקה משרדית תועלתנית בה נשים משלמות מחיר כפול. הוא תוהה האם ניתן באמת להשתחרר מציפיות ומכבלים חברתיים. "יריתי באמריקה" הוא גם ספר מותח ואפל שנוגע באלימות שקיימת בחברה הישראלית, וגם בזו האמריקאית, ואולי אף שוכנת בנפשו של כל אדם. הרומן מיטיב לתאר את נימי היחסים הדקיקים והשבירים של בני אדם עם הזולת, עם הטבע וגם עם עצמם.
בסגנון ייחודי, מאופק אך פיוטי, מצליחה תהילה חכימי לכבוש את הקוראים. באמצעות כתיבה חזקה ובוטחת, היא בוראת עולם מוחשי ומהפנט ששואב אותנו לתוכו. זהו ללא ספק השיא במפעלה הנמשך של חכימי, המצייר, קו אחרי קו, דיוקן של נשיות ושל אנושיות, וממצב אותה כאחד הקולות הספרותיים הבולטים והחשובים בישראל.
במהלך אותם מסעות ציד היא מפתחת יחסים יוצאי דופן עם אחד מעמיתיה, דייוויד, שמדריך ומלווה אותה. הגיבורה יורה שוב ושוב, משכללת ומדייקת את יכולות הציד שלה, ונשאבת לתוך עולם של אלימות מתכתית וחושניות אפלה. יחסיה עם דייוויד מעמיקים ככל שמעמדה המקצועי וביטחונה הפנימי מתערערים. בעוד היא לוקחת על עצמה את תפקיד הציידת-הרודפת, הבחירות שבחרה, או לא בחרה, רודפות אותה. מסעות הציד עם דייוויד הופכים למקום היציב היחיד בחייה של הגיבורה, המחפשת אחיזה בעולם – עד שיום אחד הכול משתנה.
לרומן "יריתי באמריקה" פנים רבות: הוא עוסק בחיי העבודה ובדינמיקה משרדית תועלתנית בה נשים משלמות מחיר כפול. הוא תוהה האם ניתן באמת להשתחרר מציפיות ומכבלים חברתיים. "יריתי באמריקה" הוא גם ספר מותח ואפל שנוגע באלימות שקיימת בחברה הישראלית, וגם בזו האמריקאית, ואולי אף שוכנת בנפשו של כל אדם. הרומן מיטיב לתאר את נימי היחסים הדקיקים והשבירים של בני אדם עם הזולת, עם הטבע וגם עם עצמם.
בסגנון ייחודי, מאופק אך פיוטי, מצליחה תהילה חכימי לכבוש את הקוראים. באמצעות כתיבה חזקה ובוטחת, היא בוראת עולם מוחשי ומהפנט ששואב אותנו לתוכו. זהו ללא ספק השיא במפעלה הנמשך של חכימי, המצייר, קו אחרי קו, דיוקן של נשיות ושל אנושיות, וממצב אותה כאחד הקולות הספרותיים הבולטים והחשובים בישראל.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2023
12 people are currently reading
4182 people want to read
About the author
Tehila Hakimi
8 books13 followersTehila Hakimi is a Jewish Book Council Award– winning fiction writer and poet. She was a participant in the 2018 Fulbright International Writing Program Fellowship at the University of Iowa.
Hakimi’s short prose and poems have been published in translation in Asymptote, World Literature Today, and The Poetry Review, among others. Hunting in America received critical acclaim when published in Hebrew, it was mentioned as Haaretz Best Book of 2023 and was longlisted for the 2023 Sapir prize.
Hakimi’s short prose and poems have been published in translation in Asymptote, World Literature Today, and The Poetry Review, among others. Hunting in America received critical acclaim when published in Hebrew, it was mentioned as Haaretz Best Book of 2023 and was longlisted for the 2023 Sapir prize.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
August 18, 2025
I’d wish this short novel had a bit more meat on its bones and less vibes. An Israeli woman on secondment in the US uses hunting to embed and get closer to her boss. The sterile violence in the corporate world is a key theme as well
In Hunting in America death and the start of life juxtapositioned with the aggressive sterility of the corporate world. The feeling of being alienated in a different work culture in the first section of the book feels very familiar for me, being from direct the Netherlands now working in indirect England. Unlike our main character, I never thought of going hunting with my boss, this sounds so awkward and also turns out that way, especially in the context with the reorganisation rumours and some colleagues just disappearing.
Then there is a dead child and an abortion floating around in the narrative and some instrumental pregnancy hopes, since the US offers no worker protection.
The longest Alone chapter with the thirteenth time shooting is so oblique I needed to track back 10 pages to understand what I had missed.
Isolation and violent rituals of belonging are combined in a spare vignette style of writing, which in the end left me wondering what the moral core and drive of this main character is supposed to be. The narrative didn’t really capture me after the halfway point and the flashback to her life in Israel feels too similar to her life in the US, except for eating some falafel.
I do like how hunting is used in the book as a way to feel a level of agency and control. Sometimes the forest scenes gave me Annihilation vibes in terms of feeling as a fever trip, but beside the last sentence of the book the unease is never turned up as much as I would have liked.
Enjoyable but much more a literary snack than a meal of any real substance.
In Hunting in America death and the start of life juxtapositioned with the aggressive sterility of the corporate world. The feeling of being alienated in a different work culture in the first section of the book feels very familiar for me, being from direct the Netherlands now working in indirect England. Unlike our main character, I never thought of going hunting with my boss, this sounds so awkward and also turns out that way, especially in the context with the reorganisation rumours and some colleagues just disappearing.
Then there is a dead child and an abortion floating around in the narrative and some instrumental pregnancy hopes, since the US offers no worker protection.
The longest Alone chapter with the thirteenth time shooting is so oblique I needed to track back 10 pages to understand what I had missed.
Isolation and violent rituals of belonging are combined in a spare vignette style of writing, which in the end left me wondering what the moral core and drive of this main character is supposed to be. The narrative didn’t really capture me after the halfway point and the flashback to her life in Israel feels too similar to her life in the US, except for eating some falafel.
I do like how hunting is used in the book as a way to feel a level of agency and control. Sometimes the forest scenes gave me Annihilation vibes in terms of feeling as a fever trip, but beside the last sentence of the book the unease is never turned up as much as I would have liked.
Enjoyable but much more a literary snack than a meal of any real substance.
August 14, 2025
Sparse and fragmentary in style, this reminded me of books like
The Coming Bad Days
and Stone Yard Devotional. An Israeli woman working in the USA learns to hunt with the help of a male colleague. With the suggestion that her role may be cut, necessitating a return to Israel – something she wants to avoid at all costs – the narrator goes into a tailspin and loses herself in hunting, taking an increasing number of risks as she ventures out on her own. Some aspects, especially relating to the protagonist’s history before coming to America, are left frustratingly underexplored, but the plot’s economy also works in its favour. Successful as a small, pared-back vignette that gives you just enough.
August 22, 2024
אשה ברילוקיישן בחברת הייטק שיוצאת לצוד והולכת ונעלמת. הספר מהודק ואז הולך ומרזה כמו הגיבורה עד שמתפוגג. כמו שקנקן הקפה, שממתין במטבח לגיבורה בכל בוקר, מעיד שהיה שם מישהו כך גם התודות בסוף הספר מרמזות שהספר נגמר וזהו?
3.5 כוכבים מעוגלים מעלה בגלל הכתיבה
3.5 כוכבים מעוגלים מעלה בגלל הכתיבה
July 25, 2025
Tehila Hakimi's debut novel "Hunting in America" emerges like a carefully aimed bullet—precise, devastating, and impossible to forget once it hits its mark. Translated with remarkable skill by Joanna Chen from the original Hebrew, this psychological thriller follows an unnamed Israeli woman who relocates to America for work and discovers an unsettling aptitude for hunting. What begins as corporate team-building evolves into something far darker, as Hakimi weaves a narrative that interrogates the violence inherent in displacement, assimilation, and human nature itself.
The novel's structure mirrors the hunting seasons it chronicles, divided into sections that follow the protagonist's deepening immersion into American gun culture. Through her poet's sensibility—Hakimi is an award-winning poet and recipient of Israel's National Library's Pardes Scholarship—she transforms the act of hunting into a meditation on power, survival, and the thin veneer of civilization that separates predator from prey.
Anatomy of Isolation: Character Development in a Foreign Land
Hakimi's unnamed protagonist serves as a masterfully crafted unreliable narrator whose emotional numbness gradually reveals itself as both symptom and survival mechanism. Her decision to abandon her Israeli identity entirely—refusing Hebrew phone calls, avoiding Israeli colleagues, and eventually planning never to return—speaks to a profound disconnection that predates her American relocation. The character's systematic erasure of her past creates a void that hunting temporarily fills, offering structure and purpose in an otherwise directionless existence.
The supporting cast, particularly David, her hunting mentor and eventual lover, functions less as fully realized individuals than as projections of the protagonist's fractured psyche. David's own tragic history—the accidental shooting death of his son Tom—creates a parallel narrative of guilt and self-destruction that mirrors the protagonist's journey. Miriam, David's wife, appears and disappears like a ghost throughout the narrative, her seasonal absences reflecting the cyclical nature of grief and avoidance that defines both marriages in the story.
The Corporate Wilderness: Workplace Dynamics and Power Structures
Hakimi demonstrates particular insight into the subtle violence of corporate culture, drawing parallels between office hierarchies and hunting dynamics. The protagonist's struggles with American business communication—learning to soften her direct Israeli style, mastering the art of performative pleasantries—reveal how cultural assimilation requires a fundamental restructuring of one's voice and identity.
The looming threat of job termination creates a constant undercurrent of anxiety that drives much of the plot's tension. When the company attempts to eliminate her position, the protagonist's consideration of fake pregnancy as a legal shield demonstrates the desperate calculations that displacement can inspire. These workplace scenes are among Hakimi's strongest, revealing her understanding of how institutional power operates and how individuals navigate systems designed to exclude them.
Seasonal Rhythms: Structure and Symbolism
The novel's organization around hunting seasons provides both literal structure and metaphorical framework. Each hunting expedition marks a stage in the protagonist's psychological deterioration, from her first missed shot to her final, ambiguous confrontation with David. Hakimi uses the changing seasons to reflect internal transformations, with winter's isolation giving way to spring's false promise of renewal.
The recurring motif of ammunition counting—cartridges carefully tracked and collected—serves as a metaphor for accountability and evidence. The protagonist's obsessive attention to these details suggests both her military background and her growing paranoia. When Miriam discovers spent cartridges in their yard, the physical evidence of violence intrudes upon domestic space, foreshadowing the novel's climactic revelation.
The Poetry of Violence: Hakimi's Literary Style
Hakimi's background as a poet manifests in her precise, economical prose and her ability to find beauty in disturbing imagery. Her descriptions of hunting—the recoil of rifles, the whistle of bullets, the thud of falling bodies—achieve an almost lyrical quality that makes the violence simultaneously repellent and hypnotic. This stylistic choice forces readers to confront their own complicity in the protagonist's actions, as the elegant prose makes even killing seem aesthetically pleasing.
The novel's fragmented narrative structure, with its numbered hunting expeditions and temporal shifts, reflects the protagonist's deteriorating mental state. Hakimi skillfully employs white space and abrupt transitions to create a sense of dissociation that mirrors her character's psychological condition.
Critical Shortcomings: Where the Shot Goes Wide
Despite its considerable strengths, "Hunting in America" occasionally suffers from its own ambitions. The novel's final act, particularly the mysterious incident involving what the protagonist believes to be a child but turns out to be a young deer, feels rushed and underdeveloped. This crucial scene, which should serve as the story's emotional climax, instead reads as deliberately obscure in ways that feel more frustrating than illuminating.
The relationship between the protagonist and David, while psychologically complex, sometimes lacks the emotional depth necessary to justify their mutual destruction. Their connection feels more symbolic than genuine, which weakens the impact of the novel's conclusion. Additionally, some of the corporate subplot feels repetitive, particularly the extended sequences dealing with the protagonist's job insecurity.
Cultural Translation: Themes of Displacement and Identity
Hakimi's exploration of cultural displacement resonates particularly strongly in our current moment of global migration and cultural anxiety. The protagonist's complete rejection of her Israeli identity—her refusal to speak Hebrew, her avoidance of Israeli colleagues, her determination never to return—represents an extreme response to the challenge of bicultural existence. This self-erasure, while understandable given her past trauma (implied but never fully revealed), ultimately proves as destructive as the violence she seeks to escape.
The novel's treatment of American gun culture avoids simple condemnation in favor of psychological complexity. Hakimi presents hunting not as inherently evil but as a potentially corrupting force that amplifies existing psychological damage. This nuanced approach makes the novel more unsettling than straightforward criticism might have been.
Final Verdict: A Disturbing Masterpiece
"Hunting in America" succeeds as both literary thriller and cultural critique, offering a disturbing portrait of how violence perpetuates itself across borders and generations. Hakimi's poetic sensibility elevates what could have been a simple tale of psychological breakdown into something more complex and haunting. While the novel occasionally stumbles under the weight of its ambitions, its exploration of displacement, identity, and the everyday violence that shapes our lives marks Hakimi as a significant new voice in contemporary literature.
The book's power lies not in providing easy answers but in forcing readers to confront uncomfortable questions about assimilation, belonging, and the price of reinvention. In our current political climate, with its anxieties about immigration and cultural identity, "Hunting in America" offers a deeply personal perspective on the broader social forces that shape individual lives.
The novel's structure mirrors the hunting seasons it chronicles, divided into sections that follow the protagonist's deepening immersion into American gun culture. Through her poet's sensibility—Hakimi is an award-winning poet and recipient of Israel's National Library's Pardes Scholarship—she transforms the act of hunting into a meditation on power, survival, and the thin veneer of civilization that separates predator from prey.
Anatomy of Isolation: Character Development in a Foreign Land
Hakimi's unnamed protagonist serves as a masterfully crafted unreliable narrator whose emotional numbness gradually reveals itself as both symptom and survival mechanism. Her decision to abandon her Israeli identity entirely—refusing Hebrew phone calls, avoiding Israeli colleagues, and eventually planning never to return—speaks to a profound disconnection that predates her American relocation. The character's systematic erasure of her past creates a void that hunting temporarily fills, offering structure and purpose in an otherwise directionless existence.
The supporting cast, particularly David, her hunting mentor and eventual lover, functions less as fully realized individuals than as projections of the protagonist's fractured psyche. David's own tragic history—the accidental shooting death of his son Tom—creates a parallel narrative of guilt and self-destruction that mirrors the protagonist's journey. Miriam, David's wife, appears and disappears like a ghost throughout the narrative, her seasonal absences reflecting the cyclical nature of grief and avoidance that defines both marriages in the story.
The Corporate Wilderness: Workplace Dynamics and Power Structures
Hakimi demonstrates particular insight into the subtle violence of corporate culture, drawing parallels between office hierarchies and hunting dynamics. The protagonist's struggles with American business communication—learning to soften her direct Israeli style, mastering the art of performative pleasantries—reveal how cultural assimilation requires a fundamental restructuring of one's voice and identity.
The looming threat of job termination creates a constant undercurrent of anxiety that drives much of the plot's tension. When the company attempts to eliminate her position, the protagonist's consideration of fake pregnancy as a legal shield demonstrates the desperate calculations that displacement can inspire. These workplace scenes are among Hakimi's strongest, revealing her understanding of how institutional power operates and how individuals navigate systems designed to exclude them.
Seasonal Rhythms: Structure and Symbolism
The novel's organization around hunting seasons provides both literal structure and metaphorical framework. Each hunting expedition marks a stage in the protagonist's psychological deterioration, from her first missed shot to her final, ambiguous confrontation with David. Hakimi uses the changing seasons to reflect internal transformations, with winter's isolation giving way to spring's false promise of renewal.
The recurring motif of ammunition counting—cartridges carefully tracked and collected—serves as a metaphor for accountability and evidence. The protagonist's obsessive attention to these details suggests both her military background and her growing paranoia. When Miriam discovers spent cartridges in their yard, the physical evidence of violence intrudes upon domestic space, foreshadowing the novel's climactic revelation.
The Poetry of Violence: Hakimi's Literary Style
Hakimi's background as a poet manifests in her precise, economical prose and her ability to find beauty in disturbing imagery. Her descriptions of hunting—the recoil of rifles, the whistle of bullets, the thud of falling bodies—achieve an almost lyrical quality that makes the violence simultaneously repellent and hypnotic. This stylistic choice forces readers to confront their own complicity in the protagonist's actions, as the elegant prose makes even killing seem aesthetically pleasing.
The novel's fragmented narrative structure, with its numbered hunting expeditions and temporal shifts, reflects the protagonist's deteriorating mental state. Hakimi skillfully employs white space and abrupt transitions to create a sense of dissociation that mirrors her character's psychological condition.
Critical Shortcomings: Where the Shot Goes Wide
Despite its considerable strengths, "Hunting in America" occasionally suffers from its own ambitions. The novel's final act, particularly the mysterious incident involving what the protagonist believes to be a child but turns out to be a young deer, feels rushed and underdeveloped. This crucial scene, which should serve as the story's emotional climax, instead reads as deliberately obscure in ways that feel more frustrating than illuminating.
The relationship between the protagonist and David, while psychologically complex, sometimes lacks the emotional depth necessary to justify their mutual destruction. Their connection feels more symbolic than genuine, which weakens the impact of the novel's conclusion. Additionally, some of the corporate subplot feels repetitive, particularly the extended sequences dealing with the protagonist's job insecurity.
Cultural Translation: Themes of Displacement and Identity
Hakimi's exploration of cultural displacement resonates particularly strongly in our current moment of global migration and cultural anxiety. The protagonist's complete rejection of her Israeli identity—her refusal to speak Hebrew, her avoidance of Israeli colleagues, her determination never to return—represents an extreme response to the challenge of bicultural existence. This self-erasure, while understandable given her past trauma (implied but never fully revealed), ultimately proves as destructive as the violence she seeks to escape.
The novel's treatment of American gun culture avoids simple condemnation in favor of psychological complexity. Hakimi presents hunting not as inherently evil but as a potentially corrupting force that amplifies existing psychological damage. This nuanced approach makes the novel more unsettling than straightforward criticism might have been.
Final Verdict: A Disturbing Masterpiece
"Hunting in America" succeeds as both literary thriller and cultural critique, offering a disturbing portrait of how violence perpetuates itself across borders and generations. Hakimi's poetic sensibility elevates what could have been a simple tale of psychological breakdown into something more complex and haunting. While the novel occasionally stumbles under the weight of its ambitions, its exploration of displacement, identity, and the everyday violence that shapes our lives marks Hakimi as a significant new voice in contemporary literature.
The book's power lies not in providing easy answers but in forcing readers to confront uncomfortable questions about assimilation, belonging, and the price of reinvention. In our current political climate, with its anxieties about immigration and cultural identity, "Hunting in America" offers a deeply personal perspective on the broader social forces that shape individual lives.
August 11, 2025
Bleak, sterile, ominous, unsettling...
An Israeli woman moves to the US for work and starts going on hunting trips with her male colleague - she is a good shooter having served in the army (in fact, it is a strange time to be reading this...).
She starts an affair of sorts with her colleague, but as readers we are kept guessing at the deeper feelings and desires of the main character - she seems stoic and apathetic but can all of a sudden explode in rage. There are themes woven into the text on motherhood, power dynamics. It's not uninteresting but because it is so cold, I never really cared.
The final page turns things upside down and creates many questions, that I am now left with :)
This is not my type of book, I found it too negative and nihilistic for my taste. Doesn't mean it isn't well done.
An Israeli woman moves to the US for work and starts going on hunting trips with her male colleague - she is a good shooter having served in the army (in fact, it is a strange time to be reading this...).
She starts an affair of sorts with her colleague, but as readers we are kept guessing at the deeper feelings and desires of the main character - she seems stoic and apathetic but can all of a sudden explode in rage. There are themes woven into the text on motherhood, power dynamics. It's not uninteresting but because it is so cold, I never really cared.
The final page turns things upside down and creates many questions, that I am now left with :)
This is not my type of book, I found it too negative and nihilistic for my taste. Doesn't mean it isn't well done.
July 8, 2023
לסקירה מפורטת בעברית ואנגלית, קישור לבלוג שלי -
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/ירית...
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/ירית...
July 31, 2025
This is very well written and the translation is excellent.
I can tell you that there's little in the way of plot. It's more of a character sketch, using hunting as motif. The story is rather bleak, but the reading pace is fast. The writing itself is sparse. More of the story is told by what is unsaid than by what is said. The book is NOT twisty, no matter what the publication blurb promises.
While I much prefer a book with a plot, I did find myself fascinated by our characters. Our main character is well realized. David is rather anemic. His wife has more depth than either, though she's not nearly in the book as much.
In the end, I found I enjoyed the read. While I'm not sure I'd revisit the book, I would revisit the author.
* ARC via Publisher
I can tell you that there's little in the way of plot. It's more of a character sketch, using hunting as motif. The story is rather bleak, but the reading pace is fast. The writing itself is sparse. More of the story is told by what is unsaid than by what is said. The book is NOT twisty, no matter what the publication blurb promises.
While I much prefer a book with a plot, I did find myself fascinated by our characters. Our main character is well realized. David is rather anemic. His wife has more depth than either, though she's not nearly in the book as much.
In the end, I found I enjoyed the read. While I'm not sure I'd revisit the book, I would revisit the author.
* ARC via Publisher
May 12, 2025
Review to follow.
July 29, 2025
If not for the occasional phrase like “on my final Rosh Hashanah in Israel” I could have assumed this translated work, just published in English after appearing in Hebrew in 2023, was from a contemporary South American litfic writer - Agustina Bazterrica, Ana Paula Maia, Samanta Schweblin all whirled around my head as I read this. An unsettled and disturbed atmosphere, a sense of something ominous lurking, normalization of violence, existence as a powerless cog in a system that lacks empathy, dead animals, and a sort of minimalist, functional, straight-ahead prose style that emphasizes actions and repetition: Hakimi seemed to me to fit right in.
The novel’s protagonist has accepted a corporate transfer from home in Israel to the company’s American regional office; the business is vaguely described as being in project management. Her only real motivation is to escape her current existence, and she arrives as an empty lackadaisical vessel in terms of her orientation to life. Her connections to other people have broken down, and the extent of her knowledge of herself seems questionable. This void is filled by an older male supervisor who begins taking her along on hunting trips. As corporate restructuring threatens her career, she swings between the powerlessness of the office and the power of being behind a gun. Hunter and hunted, human and animal, become increasingly mixed up, and her ability to accurately recognize reality comes into question.
The novel’s protagonist has accepted a corporate transfer from home in Israel to the company’s American regional office; the business is vaguely described as being in project management. Her only real motivation is to escape her current existence, and she arrives as an empty lackadaisical vessel in terms of her orientation to life. Her connections to other people have broken down, and the extent of her knowledge of herself seems questionable. This void is filled by an older male supervisor who begins taking her along on hunting trips. As corporate restructuring threatens her career, she swings between the powerlessness of the office and the power of being behind a gun. Hunter and hunted, human and animal, become increasingly mixed up, and her ability to accurately recognize reality comes into question.
June 13, 2025
There is a hauntingly alluring quality and a quiet intensity to Hunting in America that grips you from the start. With short chapters that are vignettes, you fly through the novel unraveling the protagonist’s story: why she transferred from her tech company’s Israeli office to America and how she adapts to American culture. There is a sense of taboo enveloping her relationship with her supervisor and their obsession with hunting. There is tangible anticipation and suspense throughout the novel; it’s propulsive and addicting.
Author Tehila Hakimi has forged a unique tale of loneliness and desire, power and control. She adeptly explores what it’s like to be a woman in spheres dominated by men. The prose is sharp and beautiful, kudos to translator Joanna Chen. Hunting in America ends on an abrupt dramatic note, I was ripped from its pages, not yet ready for it to end. It is a standout work of fiction. It would make for a fantastic book club discussion. I loved it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to Penguin Books and Geula Geurts for the ARC. Hunting in America will be out 7/22.
Author Tehila Hakimi has forged a unique tale of loneliness and desire, power and control. She adeptly explores what it’s like to be a woman in spheres dominated by men. The prose is sharp and beautiful, kudos to translator Joanna Chen. Hunting in America ends on an abrupt dramatic note, I was ripped from its pages, not yet ready for it to end. It is a standout work of fiction. It would make for a fantastic book club discussion. I loved it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to Penguin Books and Geula Geurts for the ARC. Hunting in America will be out 7/22.
October 3, 2025
Lots of themes here - but I’ve seen a few people who don’t understand her detachment, I think we have a case of PTSD from her time served in the IDF as well as living in that region. Prior to Tom being introduced we have a moment in the gun store where she sees a child through a cut out- this tells us there was or will be a death of a child- we learn of not only Tom, but her abortion, miscarriages and as she hallucinates in her killing of animals we question whether she was truthful in her statement that she hasn’t killed before. Remember she sees a human hand and doesn’t know how the smaller creature died- this would be reminiscent to bombs or explosions which seem to be a common part of their training if not service. It’s an interesting exploration of the different types of violence in the modern world- hunting for “population control”, having private property on large swaths of land- it’s moving from one colonial state to another and how the violence always exists, even if it’s not as apparent as explosions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2025
This one will stick with me.
Read
May 21, 2024רומן על רילוקיישן שלא מהסס לדבר על הפגיעות בסיטואציה של ישראלים בכלל ונשים בפרט ולא נופל לקלישאות. כתכתי כאן ביקורת משולבת עליו יחד עם "חדר בריחה" של מייגן גולדין והסדרה severance
https://mellitza.wordpress.com/2024/0...
https://mellitza.wordpress.com/2024/0...
January 2, 2026
I’m changing my rating to 4 stars (actually 3.75 if Goodreads gave that option) because I was up thinking about this book all night after finishing it early yesterday afternoon. The MC kept me at arms length, which is usually a no-go for me, but after rolling it all over in my head, I think that adds to the disconnected vibe. This one is more layered than I gave it credit for initially. I may reread.
September 13, 2025
Maybe I’m still debating my rating. Part of me respects the lack of dramatic set up here—really I suppose it’s the lack of interiority that gives a crispness to this POV and her situations. Until we finally get her backstory, which sticks out a bit like a sore thumb. Suddenly it’s like this narrator deserves a name.
But she doesn’t get one in this slim volume. Hakimi crafts an Israeli protagonist who works in middle management and arrives to work at an American office of an Israeli corporation in order to escape her past. While there, a colleague takes her on hunting trips, they engage in a brief affair, and possibly the protagonist loses her grip on reality.
…or maybe she’s just working in middle management. It could be pure bias, but to me her work life feels archetypal. To be stuck in the middle is to be vulnerable, bound to the whims of a dance where you don’t hold the gun. For our narrator, part of the experience in America is learning how to “de-Israelify” her professional interactions. Part of it is about how a woman is “supposed” to behave.
But part of it is the nature of the beast, learning how to play the game. To maintain your balance when the floor slips underneath your feet, like in this exchange with a representative from upper management. “After a quick round of niceties we went into one of the conference rooms. He spoke fast—at first he said one thing and then he said another. He contradicted himself again and again. He believed it would take time for management to release a formal decision regarding the US unit. He repeatedly told me there was nothing to worry about, that they intended to ‘keep’ me.”
The push and pull here is between the company trying to reel her back to Israel and her desire to stay away. As these realities come more into conflict, the narrator starts to get a bit paranoid in her attempts to craft her own destiny.
Hunting is perhaps her way to do that, her way to take back control. It also further dehumanizes her, how her experience narrows into “targeting animals.” Beyond that narrow scope is a more murky reality, like where her colleague/lover’s son dies of a gunshot wound.
Near the end of the book, the protagonist also has a scare where it’s unsure for awhile what (or who) she shot. This bleeds into a work meeting, too--an enterprise that is inherently bloodless. You expend a lot of energy on something from which you have to keep some personal distance. It's like running a marathon to watch paint dry.
“The first part of the meeting passed quickly, we went through the first section in the requirements document and agreed on most of the amendment,” the protagonist begins. “In the second part of the meeting, we went over the main section of the requirements document. It was more detailed, and we examined the technical aspects in depth, which required concentration.”
The problem is that beyond the confines of the game of work and the game of hunting, the protagonist might have shot someone. Something real is starting to break through: “When I lifted my head I almost hit the table. I connected the cable to the laptop and then to the in-table power socket. David said something and one of them answered, I wasn’t sure who. My thoughts wandered and the voices in the room floated above me, I no longer understood what they were saying. When I lifted my gaze from the screen of my laptop for a moment I only saw the animal.”
Shortly before this we finally get her backstory in Israel (interpersonal drama more than politics.) I found it jarring where she suddenly had a “real” life with a family and a bad breakup; to me, that didn’t fit the contours of the rest of the story. Maybe by then I was starting to remember I’m more of an emotional character reader, so the vignette style of this novel can only take me so far. :P It’s possible I missed important details, even, but anywho, this is the gist I got of the story.
The truth is I appreciated the protagonist as an archetypal working stooge struggling with various levels of dehumanization. But as an individual, she's only skin deep. Even the translator, Joanna Chen, agreed with me, at least in part, in this Jewish Book Council interview.
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-...
“The protagonist’s voice is disembodied – she has no name, her emotions are muted, she is unattached to either person or place. It took time and several revisions before I began to hear her voice.”
For me, the most memorable thing about this book is the dispassionate look at what it means to be stuck in these realities. I've thought about that long after turning the final page.
But she doesn’t get one in this slim volume. Hakimi crafts an Israeli protagonist who works in middle management and arrives to work at an American office of an Israeli corporation in order to escape her past. While there, a colleague takes her on hunting trips, they engage in a brief affair, and possibly the protagonist loses her grip on reality.
…or maybe she’s just working in middle management. It could be pure bias, but to me her work life feels archetypal. To be stuck in the middle is to be vulnerable, bound to the whims of a dance where you don’t hold the gun. For our narrator, part of the experience in America is learning how to “de-Israelify” her professional interactions. Part of it is about how a woman is “supposed” to behave.
But part of it is the nature of the beast, learning how to play the game. To maintain your balance when the floor slips underneath your feet, like in this exchange with a representative from upper management. “After a quick round of niceties we went into one of the conference rooms. He spoke fast—at first he said one thing and then he said another. He contradicted himself again and again. He believed it would take time for management to release a formal decision regarding the US unit. He repeatedly told me there was nothing to worry about, that they intended to ‘keep’ me.”
The push and pull here is between the company trying to reel her back to Israel and her desire to stay away. As these realities come more into conflict, the narrator starts to get a bit paranoid in her attempts to craft her own destiny.
Hunting is perhaps her way to do that, her way to take back control. It also further dehumanizes her, how her experience narrows into “targeting animals.” Beyond that narrow scope is a more murky reality, like where her colleague/lover’s son dies of a gunshot wound.
Near the end of the book, the protagonist also has a scare where it’s unsure for awhile what (or who) she shot. This bleeds into a work meeting, too--an enterprise that is inherently bloodless. You expend a lot of energy on something from which you have to keep some personal distance. It's like running a marathon to watch paint dry.
“The first part of the meeting passed quickly, we went through the first section in the requirements document and agreed on most of the amendment,” the protagonist begins. “In the second part of the meeting, we went over the main section of the requirements document. It was more detailed, and we examined the technical aspects in depth, which required concentration.”
The problem is that beyond the confines of the game of work and the game of hunting, the protagonist might have shot someone. Something real is starting to break through: “When I lifted my head I almost hit the table. I connected the cable to the laptop and then to the in-table power socket. David said something and one of them answered, I wasn’t sure who. My thoughts wandered and the voices in the room floated above me, I no longer understood what they were saying. When I lifted my gaze from the screen of my laptop for a moment I only saw the animal.”
Shortly before this we finally get her backstory in Israel (interpersonal drama more than politics.) I found it jarring where she suddenly had a “real” life with a family and a bad breakup; to me, that didn’t fit the contours of the rest of the story. Maybe by then I was starting to remember I’m more of an emotional character reader, so the vignette style of this novel can only take me so far. :P It’s possible I missed important details, even, but anywho, this is the gist I got of the story.
The truth is I appreciated the protagonist as an archetypal working stooge struggling with various levels of dehumanization. But as an individual, she's only skin deep. Even the translator, Joanna Chen, agreed with me, at least in part, in this Jewish Book Council interview.
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-...
“The protagonist’s voice is disembodied – she has no name, her emotions are muted, she is unattached to either person or place. It took time and several revisions before I began to hear her voice.”
For me, the most memorable thing about this book is the dispassionate look at what it means to be stuck in these realities. I've thought about that long after turning the final page.
January 3, 2026
This is a book about loneliness, leaving, migration, assimilation, corporate America, sexism and much more besides. It is about the attempt to regain control when everything falls apart and you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself. I really enjoyed the precise and direct writing style, which suited the tone of the novel perfectly.
October 5, 2023
אחרי 30 עמודים הייתי מאוהב בספר. אחרי 80 הסתקרנתי עוד יותר ותהיתי לעצמי איך הסופרת תכננה את הסיפור וממה בדיוק הוא התחיל. בכל הסקירות על הספר משתמשים במילה "מינימליסטי", וזה אכן תואר מתאים. רק הסוף מרגיש מינימליסטי מדי ולא מספיק ברור. לא באמת חשוב לדעתי מה קרה בסוף, אלא חשובה השאלה: האם הוא יודע?
July 17, 2025
Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi (translated by Joanna Chen)
Publishes on 22 Jul 2025
4 stars
Tropes
-Culture
-Identity
-Opportunity
-PTSD
-Found Family
-Work Challenges
-Resiliency
-New in town/Expat
Hunting in America is a Literary Fiction following an Israeli woman’s journey relocating to America for her career. America is a ticket out, a chance at a new life—or at least a different one. But leaving a personal history behind is easier said than done.
The author’s voice is naturally alluring in this character driven story. Pair that with the short quick chapters and I just couldn’t put this book down. At first, the plot seemed like it was simple but that quickly evolved.
Almost every scene contains an indirect reference to the FMC’s old life from handling a rifle to the way David eats chicken like her mother. The author artistically manipulates storytelling to inform the reader about her current life and past at the same time. Truly, there are so many sentences doing double duty.
As a reader you unravel with the story. I felt the characters lack of power and her struggle for control while various males dominated her life. Not only did she face this in her career that she fought to maintain, but even with David. Even though David was her friend, she passively let him take control and make all the decisions.
Honestly, this novel is loaded with so much to unpack. I could easily see this added to a curriculum for an English course or selected for a book club.
Thank you, Viking Penguin of Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for this advanced copy
Publishes on 22 Jul 2025
4 stars
Tropes
-Culture
-Identity
-Opportunity
-PTSD
-Found Family
-Work Challenges
-Resiliency
-New in town/Expat
Hunting in America is a Literary Fiction following an Israeli woman’s journey relocating to America for her career. America is a ticket out, a chance at a new life—or at least a different one. But leaving a personal history behind is easier said than done.
The author’s voice is naturally alluring in this character driven story. Pair that with the short quick chapters and I just couldn’t put this book down. At first, the plot seemed like it was simple but that quickly evolved.
Almost every scene contains an indirect reference to the FMC’s old life from handling a rifle to the way David eats chicken like her mother. The author artistically manipulates storytelling to inform the reader about her current life and past at the same time. Truly, there are so many sentences doing double duty.
As a reader you unravel with the story. I felt the characters lack of power and her struggle for control while various males dominated her life. Not only did she face this in her career that she fought to maintain, but even with David. Even though David was her friend, she passively let him take control and make all the decisions.
Honestly, this novel is loaded with so much to unpack. I could easily see this added to a curriculum for an English course or selected for a book club.
Thank you, Viking Penguin of Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for this advanced copy
July 29, 2025
Unsettling but still hard to put down... who is hunting who?
4.5 stars.
There's a metaphor or two here I think, and a story that felt both central but also at a distance with the writing/narrator style not letting us feel all that close to our protagonist.
We learn her story though - but I've just realised I don't think we learn her name - a woman has transferred offices from Israel to America. She's got a simple life and routine, work and has become entangled in a hunting pastime with co-workers, eventually with her superior and his wife, becoming closer to their family and improving in her own shooting abilities.
There's a quiet plot that slowly rears its head, that you see coming but don't realise (I feel like a metaphor for the deer munching in the forest would be quite apt here). The protagonist has left family behind, does not want to go back and feels her position and thus her ability to stay in the country is under threat.
None of the characters emerged as hugely sympathetic. There's a permanent feel of menace, though this will be part of my dislike for guns at play. I found it hard to relate to the hunters, and had no real idea what the woman's job and workplace are all about.
That didn't stop me feeling an urge to read on though, to understand what was going on. I had no idea how this was going to end... and getting to the last page, I had to re-read a few times to try and interpret what I was reading. Wow, quite a closer. Snuck up on this reader. And made me want to re-read to pick up on a few things I glossed over.
It's quietly powerful and not an obvious thriller or psychological plot, is rather different to previous reads, and felt original and memorable. I was uneasy reading this, even when it was over.
Good for those who like something different, something that isn't comfortable, a read that doesn't give easy answers or provide likeable leads.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
4.5 stars.
There's a metaphor or two here I think, and a story that felt both central but also at a distance with the writing/narrator style not letting us feel all that close to our protagonist.
We learn her story though - but I've just realised I don't think we learn her name - a woman has transferred offices from Israel to America. She's got a simple life and routine, work and has become entangled in a hunting pastime with co-workers, eventually with her superior and his wife, becoming closer to their family and improving in her own shooting abilities.
There's a quiet plot that slowly rears its head, that you see coming but don't realise (I feel like a metaphor for the deer munching in the forest would be quite apt here). The protagonist has left family behind, does not want to go back and feels her position and thus her ability to stay in the country is under threat.
None of the characters emerged as hugely sympathetic. There's a permanent feel of menace, though this will be part of my dislike for guns at play. I found it hard to relate to the hunters, and had no real idea what the woman's job and workplace are all about.
That didn't stop me feeling an urge to read on though, to understand what was going on. I had no idea how this was going to end... and getting to the last page, I had to re-read a few times to try and interpret what I was reading. Wow, quite a closer. Snuck up on this reader. And made me want to re-read to pick up on a few things I glossed over.
It's quietly powerful and not an obvious thriller or psychological plot, is rather different to previous reads, and felt original and memorable. I was uneasy reading this, even when it was over.
Good for those who like something different, something that isn't comfortable, a read that doesn't give easy answers or provide likeable leads.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
May 16, 2023
לאדעת טוב אבל לא מושלם
December 26, 2023
הספר זרם. אהבתי את הטון שלו. בכתיבה רזה ללא מילים מיותרות, הסופרת מספרת סיפור עם הרבה שכבות.
July 17, 2025
I will be honest. Although well-written and immediately engaging, I am not sure what this story is meant to portray. While we eventually flashback to her life in Israell, for me, not
all the blanks were filled in. Themes of starting over and a critique of American culture were evident, but I wish I understood the protagonist a little better. She almost seemed like two different people--one connected to family in israel and one very unconnected in America, attaching herself to the first person who showed interest in her.
We have an unnamed Israeli, woman, probably in her late-thirties early-forties (having served in the military 20 years earlier) who relocates to America for a position as a project manager. Almost immediately, her supervisor David invites her to go hunting with some co-workers, and eventually just with him. Does David desire her? It seems so, and his wife Miriam seems unusually compliant with this possibility.
Other than working and hunting, the woman seems to be on her own, without strong connections to family or friends. She starts running, and loses her appetite, and not much else.
If you are sensitive to descriptions of hunting,, this book is not for you. It is pretty visceral, and as
someone who has never hunted, but does eat meat, I skipped through most of these descriptions.
This book, told in short chapters, has a type of fascination for the reader who can stay with it.
You are unsettled, as is the protagonist, and not sure what is really going on here.
I won't give away the ending, but I did relisten it it several times. I found it a little vague as to the motivations, although the actions are clear enough. Essentially, I was left with the feeling that this story is a critique of American culture more than anything else. The characters are not that
well-fleshed out in terms of their backstories (ither than huge revelations).
I wish I liked it better, but it is thought-provoking and well-written.
As always, I listened on audio. Sharon Halevy, a new narrator to me, can do appropriate accents and portrays both men and women well. Her pace is deliberate, which works will for this t=story, and her quiet intonation is skillful. I looked her up on Addible, and this seems to be her firs audiobook, Good effort for a first audiobook.
all the blanks were filled in. Themes of starting over and a critique of American culture were evident, but I wish I understood the protagonist a little better. She almost seemed like two different people--one connected to family in israel and one very unconnected in America, attaching herself to the first person who showed interest in her.
We have an unnamed Israeli, woman, probably in her late-thirties early-forties (having served in the military 20 years earlier) who relocates to America for a position as a project manager. Almost immediately, her supervisor David invites her to go hunting with some co-workers, and eventually just with him. Does David desire her? It seems so, and his wife Miriam seems unusually compliant with this possibility.
Other than working and hunting, the woman seems to be on her own, without strong connections to family or friends. She starts running, and loses her appetite, and not much else.
If you are sensitive to descriptions of hunting,, this book is not for you. It is pretty visceral, and as
someone who has never hunted, but does eat meat, I skipped through most of these descriptions.
This book, told in short chapters, has a type of fascination for the reader who can stay with it.
You are unsettled, as is the protagonist, and not sure what is really going on here.
I won't give away the ending, but I did relisten it it several times. I found it a little vague as to the motivations, although the actions are clear enough. Essentially, I was left with the feeling that this story is a critique of American culture more than anything else. The characters are not that
well-fleshed out in terms of their backstories (ither than huge revelations).
I wish I liked it better, but it is thought-provoking and well-written.
As always, I listened on audio. Sharon Halevy, a new narrator to me, can do appropriate accents and portrays both men and women well. Her pace is deliberate, which works will for this t=story, and her quiet intonation is skillful. I looked her up on Addible, and this seems to be her firs audiobook, Good effort for a first audiobook.
July 22, 2025
A woman moves to an unnamed place in the US, and she is invited to go hunting—a first for her, but not her first time with a gun. And the invitation to hunt is a welcoming gesture, but it comes with a layer of subtext. It's a test and it's a beginning and perhaps it's an end, all rolled into one.
The invitation to hunt isn't the only thing in Hunting in America that is rife with subtext. Layers upon layers of it: the narrator holds her thoughts close to her chest and her history closer, but there's potential for double meanings in huge swathes of what she chooses to tell the reader and how.
In voice I'm reminded in places of My Year of Rest and Relaxation<, though I found this rather easier to read. It's the sense of a protagonist on the verge of self-destruction, I think; the protagonist here is detached even as she makes decisions based more on emotion and instinct than on calculation.
I read this quickly—meant to read it in a couple of days but shot through in one. Going in, I was a little uncertain about the focus on hunting (I'm a near lifelong vegetarian who has never touched a gun, and I'd like to keep both of those things as they are), but for all that so much of the book is about hunting, hunting is almost beside the point; so much of the story is behind the hunting blind, behind the sentences on the page. Not uplifting, but lots to parse, to think about after the fact.
Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.
The invitation to hunt isn't the only thing in Hunting in America that is rife with subtext. Layers upon layers of it: the narrator holds her thoughts close to her chest and her history closer, but there's potential for double meanings in huge swathes of what she chooses to tell the reader and how.
In voice I'm reminded in places of My Year of Rest and Relaxation<, though I found this rather easier to read. It's the sense of a protagonist on the verge of self-destruction, I think; the protagonist here is detached even as she makes decisions based more on emotion and instinct than on calculation.
I read this quickly—meant to read it in a couple of days but shot through in one. Going in, I was a little uncertain about the focus on hunting (I'm a near lifelong vegetarian who has never touched a gun, and I'd like to keep both of those things as they are), but for all that so much of the book is about hunting, hunting is almost beside the point; so much of the story is behind the hunting blind, behind the sentences on the page. Not uplifting, but lots to parse, to think about after the fact.
Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.
November 10, 2025
Hunting in America is a short novel about an Israeli woman who relocates to corporate America with her tech firm.
The novel follows the protagonist, who is never identified by name as she tries to settle into her new surroundings. She tries to find community by going hunting with her colleagues.
The protagonist in her Hi-tech workplace is under constant threat of losing her job, being pushed around from department to department. That is not just a reality of corporate America. This happens in Israel also where the protagonist originated from, and could possibly by the underlying reason she moved to America. The protagonist creates a falsehood of a pregnancy to try and insure some type of job compensation. I don't know if that is even a reality in corporate America but I have seen it capitulated in Israel.
Other reviewers have compared this novel to poetry and that is most probably why I didn't enjoy it. In poetry, there are always metaphors and similes which I never seem to understand. So I felt with this novel. She was trying to express many messages which I didn't grasp and only upon reading other reviews was I able to comprehend her efforts.
The novel follows the protagonist, who is never identified by name as she tries to settle into her new surroundings. She tries to find community by going hunting with her colleagues.
The protagonist in her Hi-tech workplace is under constant threat of losing her job, being pushed around from department to department. That is not just a reality of corporate America. This happens in Israel also where the protagonist originated from, and could possibly by the underlying reason she moved to America. The protagonist creates a falsehood of a pregnancy to try and insure some type of job compensation. I don't know if that is even a reality in corporate America but I have seen it capitulated in Israel.
Other reviewers have compared this novel to poetry and that is most probably why I didn't enjoy it. In poetry, there are always metaphors and similes which I never seem to understand. So I felt with this novel. She was trying to express many messages which I didn't grasp and only upon reading other reviews was I able to comprehend her efforts.
August 19, 2025
Anna Stolley Persky for the Jewish Book Council provides a good summary of this short novel originally published in Hebrew: "Hunting in America, Tehila Hakimi’s debut novel, is a haunting story about a woman attempting to escape her past and create a new identity. With restrained and beautiful prose, Hakimi spins an intoxicatingly strange tale about an Israeli woman relocating to America, learning to hunt, and possibly losing her grasp on reality." The protagonist and the setting are never named and the details about her job in the American office of an Israeli company are very vague. The reader learns little about her and her backstory which made it difficult to connect. Plus, I have zero context for the hunting scenes. I agree with Publishers Weekly that "Hakimi keeps the reader on their toes with the narrative’s disarming obliqueness and ambiguity." I couldn't stop turning the pages - it was a compelling and engrossing read but also incredibly unsettling, disturbing and violent. I'm not sure what to make of the ending either.
October 10, 2025
People emigrate to a country for a variety of reasons. Some leave their native shores after experiencing persecution. Others come for economic reasons; a few even plan to return to their former homes once they’ve made their fortune. Then there are those looking to escape family pressures or seeking to live their lives on their own terms. A few of these possibilities are explored with two recent novels about Israeli women who emigrated to the United States: “Happy New Years” by Maya Arad (New Vessel Press) and “Hunting in America” by Tehila Hakimi (Penguin Books) offer views of two very different women and their approaches to life away from home.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/feat...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/feat...
September 12, 2025
"As always, the Israeli summer smelled like a carcass."
While the author never explicitly uses the word "PTSD," this book manages to weave that post-war experience to every page. While the character may seem "icy" or "removed," it becomes clear that this has been her survival tactic longer than she may herself even realize. Written in vignettes, the broken structure of the novel mirrors the protagonist's reality as it starts to dissolve.
The ending of this book is going to haunt me for a very long time.
While the author never explicitly uses the word "PTSD," this book manages to weave that post-war experience to every page. While the character may seem "icy" or "removed," it becomes clear that this has been her survival tactic longer than she may herself even realize. Written in vignettes, the broken structure of the novel mirrors the protagonist's reality as it starts to dissolve.
The ending of this book is going to haunt me for a very long time.
August 16, 2025
This book definitely has a vibe. I didn’t understand the main character’s motivations - her nonchalant attitude towards relationships, her utter lack of appetite, and her desire to stay in a place where she feels so out of place. What exactly happened when she went hunting alone? I was motivated by the very short chapters, but I ended the book with many questions left unanswered.
November 12, 2025
3.5 stars
parallel between eating meat/not wanting to eat meat vs different stages of her hunting vs the way she describes food in Israel was fascinating— using this presumed anorexia after hunting, and not finding american food to have flavor, show the toll assimilation takes on her physically and mentally
parallel between eating meat/not wanting to eat meat vs different stages of her hunting vs the way she describes food in Israel was fascinating— using this presumed anorexia after hunting, and not finding american food to have flavor, show the toll assimilation takes on her physically and mentally
July 16, 2025
I’m a huge fan of these short digestible chapters. I also liked the repetition throughout, particularly the phrases at the beginning of chapters counting the number of shooting experiences. That clearly emphasized the focus of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Penguin for this ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Penguin for this ARC.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews