Five one-sided dialogues unravel two centuries of family secrets, war, and obsession across the Mediterranean.
Mr. Mani is a deeply affecting six-generation family saga, extending from nineteenth century Greece and Poland to British-occupied Palestine to German-occupied Crete and ultimately to modern Israel.
The narrative moves through time and is told in five conversations about the Mani family. Yehoshua structures each episode in reverse chronological order, recording only one speaker's voice while leaving the listener's replies unheard.
Across two centuries, the novel constructs a striking historical canvas, dense with familial tension, political blindness, and sharp psychological observation. It ends in Athens in 1848 with Avraham Mani's powerful tale about the death of his young son in Jerusalem.
Yehoshua balances tragic historical currents against personal eccentricities, shaping each encounter with understated irony and dramatic restraint. A profoundly human novel, rich in drama, irony, and wit.
