Aquarium

Shehori’s ambitious if uneven English-language debut, a tale of two misfit sisters from a rural Israeli village, too often loses itself in life’s minutiae. Raised by reserved Anna and self-proclaimed spiritual prophet Alex, both deaf, Lili and Dori believe they are deaf as well. The family is surrounded by Alex’s loyal followers from their village, where the sisters’ mischief, including stealing mail to study handwriting, draws attention from outsiders. Soon, prying social workers discover Dori can in fact hear, and, citing mental abuse, they whisk the girl away from her family and place her in a boarding school. Older sister Lili, left behind, begins to explore the world of sound as well, with hearing aids. The remaining pages chronicle the separated sisters’ schooling, romance, and moves to the U.S. for college. Shehori employs an arsenal of styles, leaping from first- to third-person perspectives and injecting letters between the sisters , yet the story takes its time to find a consistently engrossing stride, and the author’s withholding of information occasionally leads to unnecessary confusion about where the sisters are and what’s happened. Nevertheless, the fascinating Lili and Dori make this worth staying with. (Feb.)