In order to explain the satisfaction this short book elicits; the pleasantly tearful throbs that occur at a frequency of once or twice during almost all of the stories that it contains; the response of a number of characters on the brink of despair and grief to Hila Amit’s firm but not aggressive treatment – in order to explain all of these, one must go back to the misleading first impression given by the encounter with her first book Moving on from Bliss ... Unlike the masochistic, traumatized approach that has gradually become the trademark of Israeli literature … Amit finds different ways, some of them simple and very effective, to rein in tragedy and the cheap handling of heartache … Nothing here is bombastic or self-satisfied. The characters themselves control the situations, playing gently with the permissible and the forbidden … An empathetic, measured connection is created between the reader and the stories