Harry Rosenmerck

Harry is the book’s central character and protagonist. He is in his sixties, Jewish, and retired from his career as a cardiologist in New York City. As the narrative begins, he is divorced from a Frenchwoman named Monique; is estranged from his gay son David; and has not been close with his beloved daughter, Annabelle, for some time. He has also recently decided to move to Israel and raise pigs, a decision that the narrative never really explains; there is no explicit sense of why he chose to do what he did, a choice that is, unarguably, controversial. This is because a key component of living a traditionally Jewish life is the avoidance of pigs, and of eating pork; Harry raising pigs in Israel is, as the narrative’s plot and characters suggest, an act of rebellion to say the least.

Late in the narrative, there...