Bechi

A groundbreaking debut novel from one of the most interesting authors of the generation. This is the story of a simultaneously symbiotic and destructive relationship between a mother and a daughter, and of a desire to belong somewhere while also wanting to break free.

Bechi is in her thirties, and lives in Helsinki, where she is trying to finish her master’s thesis. Her mother Shoshana is a writer of Yemeni Jewish heritage. Her autobiographical novel shocked readers in Finland when it came out in the mid-90s, and she has also burned all the bridges between her family in Israel.

What’s more, the fate of Shoshana’s brother is forever burned in to the minds of the family’s three generations of women: Bechi, Shoshana, and her mother, Rivka.

When Bechi meets her mother for morning coffee at a Helsinki café and tells her about her pregnancy, many years of tension come to a head. How can two people remember everything so differently? More importantly, what are the things that they would rather forget?

Praise:

“Beneath the beautifully rolling prose and sensual metaphors there are angry, cleansing currents.---Bechi is a work that rejects sentimentality in describing the relationship between a mother and a daughter in this world. --- Despite its big themes, Bechi is very polished and dense.… As a whole, Bechi is a strong debut and Koko Hubara a welcome addition into the field of Finnish fiction.” -Helsingin Sanomat Newspaper

”The storytelling is vivid and keeps you in its grip…” - Suomen Kuvalehti Magazine