Meet Marc Solomon, an Israeli ex-Navy commando now living in L.A., who is falsely accused of money laundering through his asset management firm. As the Solomons' Santa Monica home is raided, Marc's American wife, Carolyn - concealing her own dark past - makes hopeless attempts to hold their family of five together.
But news of the scandal makes its way from America to the rest of the Solomon clan on the kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley. There we encounter various members of the family and the community - from Marc's self-absorbed movie actress sister, Shira, and her forgotten son Joseph; to his rich and powerful construction magnate father, Yakov; to his former star-crossed love, Maya; and his brother-in-law Guy Gever, a local ranger turned "artist".
As the secrets and rumors of the kibbutz are revealed through various memories and tales, we witness the things that keep the Solomons together, and those that tear them apart.
Genre: Literary Fiction
But news of the scandal makes its way from America to the rest of the Solomon clan on the kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley. There we encounter various members of the family and the community - from Marc's self-absorbed movie actress sister, Shira, and her forgotten son Joseph; to his rich and powerful construction magnate father, Yakov; to his former star-crossed love, Maya; and his brother-in-law Guy Gever, a local ranger turned "artist".
As the secrets and rumors of the kibbutz are revealed through various memories and tales, we witness the things that keep the Solomons together, and those that tear them apart.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"In What to Do About the Solomons, Bethany Ball peels back the manicured surface of family and community to surgically expose a world of hurt. Told in a razor-sharp prose that takes no prisoners, this is that rare book that can make you laugh while it's breaking your heart. I couldn't get enough." - David Hollander
"A riveting family drama which feels at once solidly classic and bitingly contemporary; if Transparent and A Thousand Acres snuck off and had a kid, you'd have What to Do About the Solomons." - Belinda McKeon
"A first novel that sizzles. It's as if Isaac Bashevis Singer were alive today, channeling The Clash and starting a new Jewish punk aesthetic. Ranging from Los Angeles to Jerusalem to a Kibbutz in the Jordan Valley, Bethany Ball has written an innovative, rollicking, wildly fun and wildly serious first novel." - David Means
"Bethany Ball lays bare the complexities of modern life in prose that has the resonant simplicity of a fairy tale. Readers who love I.B. Singer and Grace Paley now have another writer to adore." - Brian Morton
"Bethany Ball is a sharp, sensitive writer whose gift for details - a gesture, an article of clothing, a square stone, a meal eaten by a lonely, neglected ten-year-old - reveals, magically, whole worlds." - Nelly Reifler
"Bethany Ball, in her fearless literary debut, goes deep into contemporary life to give the reader characters so alive we have met them and a story so true it takes fiction to tell it. From Israel to L.A. to New York and back, on a bridge of family, money, lies, drugs, and false accusations. For the reader, a knock on the door will never be the same." - Scott Wolven
"A riveting family drama which feels at once solidly classic and bitingly contemporary; if Transparent and A Thousand Acres snuck off and had a kid, you'd have What to Do About the Solomons." - Belinda McKeon
"A first novel that sizzles. It's as if Isaac Bashevis Singer were alive today, channeling The Clash and starting a new Jewish punk aesthetic. Ranging from Los Angeles to Jerusalem to a Kibbutz in the Jordan Valley, Bethany Ball has written an innovative, rollicking, wildly fun and wildly serious first novel." - David Means
"Bethany Ball lays bare the complexities of modern life in prose that has the resonant simplicity of a fairy tale. Readers who love I.B. Singer and Grace Paley now have another writer to adore." - Brian Morton
"Bethany Ball is a sharp, sensitive writer whose gift for details - a gesture, an article of clothing, a square stone, a meal eaten by a lonely, neglected ten-year-old - reveals, magically, whole worlds." - Nelly Reifler
"Bethany Ball, in her fearless literary debut, goes deep into contemporary life to give the reader characters so alive we have met them and a story so true it takes fiction to tell it. From Israel to L.A. to New York and back, on a bridge of family, money, lies, drugs, and false accusations. For the reader, a knock on the door will never be the same." - Scott Wolven
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