Melisande! What Are Dreams?

An inspiring novel; a philosophical love story; a moving ode to a woman, as joyful and celebratory as it is elegiac. The narrator is a man in his forties, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy known as Hoo. He has been given the nickname by Mellie, the woman he addresses in this book while exploring his memories of their years together and apart. The two of them have known each other since high school in New York in the 1950s - and perhaps, Hoo thinks, much longer than that. Only as the novel unfolds do his reasons for writing to her, and the full nature of their relationship, become clear.

HILLEL HALKIN is a writer, critic, and translator whose essays have regularly appeared in publications like Commentary and The New Republic for over thirty years. His non-fiction books include Letters To An American Jewish Friend, Across The Sabbath River and, most recently, a biography of the medieval poet Yehuda Halevi. Born in New York in 1939, Halkin now lives in Israel, between Tel Aviv and Haifa. This is his first novel.