A few neighbors in a house on Rehov Arlozov in Tel Aviv are brought together by their attempts to escape loneliness. Interspersed between the chapters are also an outline history of Chaim Arlozov's accomplishments and his murder. The various voices in this story are entertaining - each chapter has a different narrator - and as their backgrounds are gradually revealed, we grow more and more fond of them. The parts about Chaim Arlozov's life, though, are not really part of the story - the author explains in the extra materials that he only put it in so that Arlozov's story would be more known, but maybe he should have done that separately instead of forcing it into this story since it reads more like a Wikipedia entry than anything more insightful. The descriptions of Tel Aviv are quite nice, though, and it is obvious that the author has a great love for the city. Overall, a good debut with good characters, but be aware that the language sometimes gets a little too pretentious. ( )