IN THE COURTYARD kennels of Jerusalem City Hall, sixteen-year-old Assaf receives a numinous golden dog, Dinka, and the assignment to find her owner. A month earlier, the beautihl teenage singer Tarnar shaves off her hair, lays aside her identity and takes to the streets to save her heroin-ad&cted brother. Dragged along in Tamar's footsteps by the dog's elemental strength, Assaf falteringly uncovers her identity and in the process discovers himself. The novel's construction, tracking Tamar and Assaf in parallel time fkames, deepens the inevitabihty of their first love. Assaf becomes Tamar's hture and she his vast and present as their respective quests finally converge on the figure of the dog.

David Grossman's teenage protagonists think as their creator writes - clearly but never simply. It