For the older one I was a mother, for the younger one I was a body, for the older one I was air. This is how Momon, a dead Jewish woman, describes her children's attitude towards her, while she is hovering in her apartment during the "sheba" they sit on her. Beside Momon, who is an archetype of motherhood and yet a disposable character, stars in her graceful way Raida, Momon's dead Arab friend, who was killed in her childhood in Algiers, the country of birth of the two. Diary of a Dead Woman is a delightful book. A bittersweet candy that is hard to say goodbye to. Through the eyes of Momon, who doesn't account to anyone, not even to herself, Goel Pinto describes with a fine brush, in incredibly well-paced color conversations, in a colorful mix of Hebrew, Arabic and French, a world different and similar to ours, full of passions, secrets, considerations and conspiracies. Everything here is felt and kneaded and redesigned, with a rich seasoning of irony and humor, sharp criticism and an overflow of human love: the family, motherhood, the relations between the Jews and the Arabs in Algiers and Paris, the State of Israel, as it is seen (finally) through the eyes of Jews from another country and more . Diary of a Dead Woman is a book you can't help but fall in love with. He is entertaining and full of charm. He is strict and "lean" in his choice of words, but at the same time rich in sounds and rich in emotion. Yigal Schwartz
