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Soţ şi soţie

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Protagonistii romanului Sot si sotie, Udi si Naama, sunt doi oameni care au crescut unul langa celalalt, insa pe parcursul acestui drum de-o viata comunicarea dintre ei a fost intrerupta, iar traiul impreuna, alaturi de fiica lor, Noga, se imparte intre gelozie, furie si vina. Se dovedeste incetul cu incetul ca intreaga fundatie pe care fusese cladita aceasta casnicie era una firava, imaginea iubirii idilice traite in adolescenta nefiind decit un invelis iluzoriu al unei vieti de familie neimplinite.

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

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910 people want to read

About the author

Zeruya Shalev

26 books275 followers
Zeruya Shalev is a bestselling Israeli author.

She has an MA in Bible studies and works as a literary editor at Keshet publishing house. On January 29, 2004, when she was returning to her home in Rehavia, Jerusalem, after taking her child to kindergarten, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a city bus as she was passing by. It took her four months to recover from her injuries. Shalev is married to Ayal Megged, son of Aharon Megged.

Shalev has published four novels, a book of poetry and a children's book. Her novels Love Life and Husband and Wife have received critical acclaim both in Israel and abroad. They have been translated into 21 languages and were bestsellers in several countries. Shalev has been awarded the Book Publishers' Association's Gold and Platinum Prizes, the German Corine Book Award (2001), the French Amphi Award, and the ACUM prize three times (1997, 2003, 2005). Husband and Wife was also nominated for the French Femina prize (2002), and is included in the French Fnac list of the 200 Best Books of the Decade.

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5 stars
301 (31%)
4 stars
338 (35%)
3 stars
227 (23%)
2 stars
62 (6%)
1 star
19 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
Profile Image for Mina H.
230 reviews81 followers
October 3, 2024
Aveam de foarte multă vreme cartea asta în bibliotecă și am ajuns la ea cu prilejul festivalului FILIT unde Zeruya Shalev este invitată.

Mai bună decât „O viață amoroasă”, din punctul meu de vedere, pe care o citisem la club, cartea asta e despre cei părăsiți, despre cei care rămân să adune bucățile lipsă, cei care se reconstruiesc și acceptă eșecul.

Profile Image for Suzănica Tănase.
Author 10 books105 followers
April 24, 2023
O carte care m-a trecut prin toate stările. Am urât-o la un moment dat, m-a răscolit, a amestecat ura și frustrarea în mine ca un făcăleț din lemn într-o mămăligă fierbinte.
A atins cel mai sensibil și mai adânc punct de fierbere al meu și m-a copleșit.
Cartea asta se trăiește, se urăște dar se și iubește… ca într-o viață de om.
Profile Image for Tuti.
462 reviews47 followers
October 7, 2020
ich habe jetzt dieses buch nach mehreren jahren wiedergelesen... und wieder war ich beeindruckt von der atemlosigkeit, der wucht, der unglaublichen kraft und wahrhaftigkeit, die darin steckt... sogar noch mehr, als beim ersten mal. zeruya shalev ist unvergleichlich gut die figuren in allen nuancen ihrer psychologie, vielschichtig, ehrlich, kraftvoll zu entwerfen und ihnen echtes, schmerzhaftes leben einzuhauchen. die ich-erzählerin, die von ihrem mann verlassen wird, ihre zehnjährige tochter noga, die mädchen in dem heim wo sie arbeitet... szenen, wie aus dem leben gerissen, perfekt beobachtet und in all ihren glaubwürdig-realistischen details und lebendigem rhythmus wiedergegeben, mit einer sprache, die fast wie in trance fließt, und den leser wie ein starker strom mitreißt. wunderbar auch die deutsche übersetzung.
wirklich große literatur, zum lesen und immer wiederlesen.
Profile Image for Simina.
47 reviews20 followers
July 22, 2014
fetele părăsite strigă heeei-iooo și citesc cartea asta și se simt bine
Profile Image for Nicolina Miller.
66 reviews42 followers
January 22, 2008
I'm unable to say that I really liked it and I'm not sure why. It was relentless--it's story and the story-telling. She didn't let you come up for a breath...her sentences bled into each other and like that, the story trickled at times, rushed at others, but always moving forward and not giving you much of a break. I liked it for these reasons. I liked it because I like the stories that show people having to look at themselves harshly and draw the tough conclusions. I like stories to show that people grow. So why didn't I really like it? that may be the budding writer coming out in me. The bible bit in the last chapter was a bit much--it was heavy and hard to understand. Or maybe that was because I was so tired from reading it straight through in a day, living this life with the wife, that I wasn't able to delve any deeper with her. Like her, I just wanted to stop and just be, not have to do anything and stop worrying and caring. Funny, how I felt this way and I couldn't put it down. I wanted to push myself to the end. And maybe I didn't really like it because I'm so drained from the experience. Like the Wife, I'm only starting out anew, and I have a ways to go. So maybe in a few days, weeks or months, I'll think more about this story and realize, I do "really like it".
Profile Image for Ingeborg .
251 reviews46 followers
October 24, 2021
Much better than the first book of the trilogy, Love Life
The characters and the story are convincing, and I liked the fact thet Shalev manages to tell a story about marriage - such an ordinary and worn out theme - but she gives us a chance to see it anew, like it is the first marriage we hear about. For me, that is an important purpose of literature - to give us a chance to get a new gaze on the ordinary and the banal.
Profile Image for Moira.
505 reviews15 followers
August 17, 2012
ENRAGING. It's taken me days to process how this spectacular writer created two such horrifying, compelling characters. Every second I lived - and in this book one indeed lives every second - in Na'ama's head was one too many. Yet I cannot stop thinking about her, arguing with her, despairing over her pain and her damage and her sick, stupid, stubborn, all-too-human actions. I felt as if she slipped under my skin and took up residence in my nerve endings. Ugh. Brilliant.
Profile Image for Nicoleta Ivan.
77 reviews14 followers
June 10, 2016
A truth (sad) story about man and woman, about marriage , about what is happening in our heads all day long.
A little bit depressing but I think everyone should read this book because in the end more or less we are all like Udi and Naama ... And we have all our own "monster" thoughts
Profile Image for David.
Author 3 books66 followers
March 22, 2016
A brilliant description in beautiful stream of consciousness prose of the stress illness places on a marriage, its disintegration and death, and the narrator's recovery and rebirth as a single woman. Should be read together with Thera by the same author, which describes a woman's life during and post-divorce.

A note about the audio edition: the novel's first person narrator is a woman in her late thirties or early forties, but the audiobook is narrated by Suzanne Toren whose voice sounds like that of a woman several decades older.
Profile Image for gardienne_du_feu.
1,445 reviews12 followers
July 28, 2020
Nach der Lektüre von Shalevs "Liebesleben" war ich ziemlich hin- und hergerissen: inhaltlich konnte ich mich mit der Handlung überhaupt nicht identifizieren, sprachlich war das Buch allerdings erstklassig.

Jetzt habe ich auch Shalevs zweites Buch gelesen – ein besonderes Buch. Die schnörkellose Erzählweise ohne echte wörtliche Rede und mit nur wenig Absätzen kannte ich bereits aus dem "Liebesleben". Schon dieses Buch zog mich in seinen Bann, obwohl ich mich über die Handlung häufig geärgert habe, aber bei "Mann und Frau" war es völlig um mich geschehen. Shalev reißt den Leser in einen Strudel aus Ereignissen und aufgewühlten Gefühlen, so daß es ziemlich schwierig ist, das Buch aus der Hand zu legen.

Wie diese Familie zerbricht, wie Na'amas kleine heile Welt in sich zusammenstürzt und ihr Leben vollkommen durcheinandergerät, schildert sie auf eine sehr berührende und trotzdem gänzlich unsentimentale Art. Und sie wagt es, auch die kleinen, unangenehmen Dinge anzusprechen, die unseren Alltag begleiten und die man meist schweigend hinnimmt, die sich aber über lange Sicht anhäufen können, bis das "Maß voll" ist. Sehr menschlich gezeichnet fand ich auch die Passagen über Na'amas Arbeit mit schwangeren Teenagern. Und auch in diesem Buch wieder ein eher offener Schluß: Udi kommt zurück, um den Geburtstag der Tochter zu feiern - aber was wird danach sein? Kehrt er zu seiner Familie zurück, oder verabschiedet er sich nach dem Fest wieder zu seiner Geliebten?

Mit diesem Buch hat mich Zeruya Shalev endgültig überzeugt, diesmal kam zu der wunderbaren Sprache eine Geschichte hinzu, in die ich mich wirklich hineinversetzen konnte. Auch ein Buch, das zum Nachdenken über Freiheit in Beziehungen anregt. Hoffentlich liest man von ihr noch mehr!
Profile Image for Lucy.
75 reviews8 followers
August 5, 2012
Claustrophobic, close-up view of a couple in emotional torment, with every moment of weakness, selfishness and cowardice recorded with merciless precision. But somehow also exhilerating, intriguing and disarming. I couldn't put it down.
Profile Image for Patty Kocis.
46 reviews
September 19, 2013
An extremely well-written book that left me a bit depressed. It's worth it, though.
36 reviews
March 23, 2015
Not really a book I would normally read. I read as I wanted to know what happened to the lady. The ending was like, Oh ok :/
475 reviews
August 15, 2020
Protagoniştii cărţii “Soţ şi soţie” sunt Udi şi Naama, care au o fiică de zece ani, Noga, prinsă în mrejele conflictului dintre cei doi. Care soţi se cunoşteau şi iubeau de la frageda vârstă de doisprezece ani. Poate şi aceasta este una din explicaţiile pentru care vraja iubirii lor se destramă în preajma vârstei de 40 de ani. Discursul şi naraţiunea cărţii sunt dezvoltate din perspectiva lui Naama, angajata unui centru de asistenţă socială pentru tinerele rămase însărcinate şi care nu vor sau nu pot să nască în condiţii normale, fiind respinse fie de părinţi, fie de taţii unor copii nedoriţi, din legături pasagere. Udi este ghid turistic prin deşerturile Iudeei, expert în istoria veche a Palestinei (în această privinţa, studiile biblice ale autoarei au ajutat-o, suntem siguri).
După o călătorie în deşert, una normală având în vedere meseria sa de ghid, Udi, soţul, începe să sufere aparent de tot felul de afecţiuni (paralizia picioarelor, a mâinilor, orbire etc.). Internarea lui în spital şi supunerea sa la amănunţite analize medicale relevă faptul că era perfect sănătos. Aceste afectiuni inventate (urme grave de ipohondrie), care au fost cât pe ce să-l ducă la internarea în secţia de boli psihiatrice a spitalului, reprezintă doar noi arme de pedepsire a unui partener sufocant şi sufocat. “Bolii îi place să dezbine cuplurile.”
nevitabil, copilul este prins în acest complicat joc tensionat, fiindu-i logic afectată percepţia asupra întregii umanităţi
Chemarea în ajutorul cuplului disfuncţional a unei “terapeute”, adepta metodelor tibetane are un cu totul alt efect decât cel scontat, astfel încât, în locul unei împăcări normale, soţul îşi ia tălpăşiţa de acasă, dându-şi seama brusc cât de nefericit şi neîmplinit este, încurcându-se tocmai cu curatoarea tibetană care îndrugă tot felul de poncife psihiterapeutice pesuite de prin cărţi de popularizare. Însă Shalev oferă încă (poate ultima) o şansă familiei, romanul său terminându-se cu revenirea berbecului ispăşitor şi rătăcitor chiar în ziua în care fiica lor îşi aniversa un deceniu de viata. Nu înainte ca şi soţia să-şi fi diversificat-variat puţin viaţa sexuală cu o aventură picantă.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1,088 reviews1 follower
May 18, 2021
Very interesting, personal, black description of a marriage.

SYNOPSIS: A rising star of international letters, Zeruya Shalev takes us on a compelling narrative journey in the exquisite and unsettling Husband and Wife. Na'ama and Udi Newman have many of the trappings of an idyllic shared existence. A couple since they were schoolchildren, they have grown together like vines and settled into a routine of calm domesticity, along with their young daughter, Noga. But in a scene worthy of Kafka, the quiet rhythms of their family life suddenly screech to a halt when Udi wakes up one morning to find that he is unable to move his legs. The doctors quickly set about searching for a physical explanation, but it soon becomes painfully clear that his paralysis is a symptom of something far less tangible, and far more insidious than any of them had imagined. This one morning sets in motion a series of events that reveals a vicious cycle of jealousy, paranoia, resentment, and accumulated injuries that now threaten to tear the small family apart. Shaleve brilliantly captures the vulnerability and deceptive comforts of lives intertwined in this deeply disturbing portrait of a diseased marriage.
Profile Image for Ana Maria.
5 reviews2 followers
September 24, 2023
Nu am citit de multa vreme o carte atat de buna. Se citeste greu, din multiple motive. Nu are dialog (dar are fir epic), si, atunci cand citesti, e ca si cum ai fi in mintea povestitoarei si ai privi pur si simplu cum ideile sar dintr-o parte intr-alta, iar ideile sunt atat de multe si atat de diferite incat obosesti si simti nevoia sa-ti iei cate o pauza de la citit. Totodata, cuvintele sunt grele si dor, lasa rani adanci in suflet, pentru ca rezonezi atat de mult cu ele. Si sunt de o profunzime cutremuratoare si, iarasi, ai nevoie de timp, sa le intelegi in totalitate, dar si sa-ti treaca ranile pe care ele le-au lasat.
Desi finalul m-a dezamagit usor, nu am dat niciodata 5 stele cu atata usurinta.
66 reviews
October 28, 2025
Hmm, ich kann mich kaum erinnern, wie ich "Liebesleben" fand. Das ist so lange her... Hier hat mir aber die Sprache besonders gut gefallen, die langen Sätze, in denen alles miteinander verwoben ist, Tiefes, Banales, Menschliches, die so feine Zeichnung einer langen Beziehung mit vielen Nuancen des Mutter-Frau-Seins. Aber bei Kap18 war die Faszination leider futsch, da ging mir die Ich-Figur so dermaßen auf die Nerven, vorher konnte ich wohlwollend darüber hinweggesehen, aber ab huer ging nur noch kursiv lesen. Eben todunglücklich, weil der Mann sie verläßt und schon holt sie sich ihr Selbstwertgefühl durch die sexuelle Bestätigung des ersten dahergelaufenen Mannes ab? Diese Frauenfiguren deren Glück davon abhängt, ob ein Mann sie begehrenswert findet oder nicht, die Haare gut sitzen, das ertrage ich nicht mehr. Schade um den guten Roman und die Frauenemanzipation, es fehlt einfach die Entwicklung der Haupt-Figur.
Ganz wunderbar hingegen und jedem krankrn Menschen zu empfehlen, wie sie die tibetische Heilkunst hier einstreut xxxxx
2 reviews
July 9, 2018
El și ea, soț și soție. Nefericiți, neîmpliniți. Schimbarea înseamnă să accepți și să te accepți fără cel alături de care ai copilărit, te-ai maturizat, te-ai împlinit.
Tristețea copilului, Noga, sentimentul de vină care o urmărește mereu pe cea care este capabilă de orice sacrificiu pentru unitatea familiei, decizia lui de a pleca... O poveste intensă, dramatică, sfâșietoare. Puțin trivială, pe alocuri vulgară. Dar vie!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Barbara Majewska-Kosik.
212 reviews4 followers
August 10, 2025
3.5 💥
Kein einfaches Buch. Manchmal, vor allem am Anfang, musste ich mich zwingen, weiterzulesen, und einmal wollte ich aufgeben. Und das war mein zweiter Versuch, das Buch zu lesen. Aber jetzt, wo ich es beendet habe, bin ich zufrieden. Weiter von dieser Schriftstellerin zu lesen, plane ich nicht.
Profile Image for Cyril.
241 reviews3 followers
October 9, 2017
Mixed feelings about the book. Can’t say i adored it, but can’t say i didn’t like it. Story is interesting. Writing is sometimes hard to follow (french translation).
Profile Image for Danielle ✧˚.
17 reviews
May 11, 2024
ארוך, מתיש, מעייף, מעצבן, נוגע, נשי, כואב, מציק, עלוקתי.
Profile Image for Tonny.
219 reviews5 followers
October 7, 2024
Wat een geweldig boek. Neigend naar vijf sterren, puur vanwege de lyrische, allesverslindende schrijfstijl en de voelbare pijn en de waanzinnige beeldspraak.
45 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2025
לא אהבתי בכלל. כתיבה עמוסה בלי פואנטה
Profile Image for Astratow.
66 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2015
Książka porusza bolesny problem rozpadu małżeństwa, ale potrzeby rewanżu i poczucia winy. To książka o dojrzewaniu konfliktu i jego eksplozji.
Zeruya Shalev pisze bardzo atrakcyjnie, przez co przerwa w lekturze często jest wymuszona znużeniem oczu... Porusza sugestywny, bezstronny sposób pokazania uczuć miotających bohaterami, ich poczynań będących efektem emocji i przemyśleń, a także rezultatów tych działań. Narrator ogranicza swoje wtręty do minimum, dzięki czemu mamy historię w postaci nieobrobionej, szlachetny diament, który prosi się o obróbkę intelektualną i refleksję.
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