The House in Talbiya

A lyrical multigenerational novel about two families—one Israeli and one Palestinian—and the house that connects them, by the award-winning author of The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land

Jerusalem, 1939: An eccentric Jewish bookbinder and his young niece, Agata, are hired to repair books at a family library in Talbiya, the fanciest neighborhood in Jerusalem. They arrive at an elegant villa of white limestone, surrounded by flowers and fruit trees. Agata—a refugee in Palestine after her parents sent her away from her native Prague to avoid the Nazi advance—marvels at the house’s balconies, stained glass windows, and beautiful Persian carpets, and thinks, I want to live here, someday.

The house belongs to a family of affluent Christian Arabs, the owners of a soap factory in Nablus. Their youngest son, Bassam, befriends Agata, and the two spend the summer together playing games among the lemon trees in the garden of the lavish house.

Nine years later, the Nakba drives Bassam and his family out of the house, and they become refugees in the West Bank. Years after that, Agata and her family move into the house in Talbiya—now in the newly established state of Israel.

Vivid and intimate, Omer Friedlander’s multigenerational family saga moves across a century, from Prague to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Berlin, and New York, to children and grandchildren, weaving a deeply touching portrait of diaspora, exile, loss, and the longing for a home. The House in Talbiya is a beautifully rendered novel about the lives we are forced to live—and the ones we miss altogether.