Maya, a twenty-year-old Israeli woman who has recently finished her service in the Israeli army, is now studying astronomy at the University of Virginia. Haunted by the recent death of her boyfriend in a pipe bombing attack in Tel Aviv, her grief is compounded by her belief that she was the intended victim, and by the fact that he was opposed to her going to school in America. Now she has come not only to study but to heal. Tammar Stein’s novel moves between Maya’s current challenges to fit into college and a new culture (which include a sexy TA and a seemingly superficial roommate) and her memories of life in Israel, where the fear of bombs and threat of war were constant. Maya feels light years away from any one place and from most of the people around her. Metaphors that heighten distortion of time and space run throughout this compelling narrative. Things at a distance are not what they appear to be, and Maya’s struggle to heal her heart and confront her own feelings about herself and the people around her, as well as community and identity, is powerful and moving. (Age 15 and older)

He went to school to learn how to kill me. The Israeli girl who ruined his life. Seven people were killed instead. A single mother of two. A computer programmer. Two college students. A grandmother and her four-year-old grandson sharing an ice cream. And Dov, my boyfriend, my heart, the man I wanted to marry, who was there waiting for me.

Maya leaves Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia, running from the violence, guilt, and memories of her past. As the narrative switches between Virginia and Israel, we learn about Maya’s life as a soldier, her ambiguous devotion to Israel, and her love for her boyfriend, Dov, who is tragically killed in a suicide bombing. Now, in Virginia, amid the day-to-day pressures of classes, roommates, and fraternity parties, Maya attempts to reconcile her Israeli past with her American future.