List Price: $18.00
Save: $5.26 (29%)

FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Want it Wednesday, March 30? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Be My Knife: A Novel Paperback – April 19, 2003

by David Grossman (Author), Vered Almog (Translator), Maya Gurantz (Translator)

15 customer reviews

See all 14 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.00

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$3.89

$0.01

Paperback

"Please retry"

$12.74

$3.37

$0.01

Unknown Binding

"Please retry"

—

$6.00

When the awkward, neurotic and childlike Yair, a seller of rare books, sees a beautiful woman across the room at a class reunion he feels compelled to write to her. So begins a love affair of words between two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, yearning for the connection that has always eluded them. "Be a knife for me," Yair writes to Miriam, "and I, I swear, will be a knife for you." As they peel back their inhibitions, their correspondence unfolds into an exchange of their most naked confessions in a novel that is as passionate as it is spellbinding.

Be My Knife: A Novel

$12.74 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

David Grossman

19

Paperback
$16.02
David Grossman

5

Paperback
$15.98
David Grossman

19

Paperback
$14.99
David Grossman

21

Paperback
$12.68
David Grossman

7

Paperback
$16.00

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (April 19, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312421478
ISBN-13: 978-0312421472
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,261,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #239 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > Booksellers & Bookselling
- #42083 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- #59530 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		53%
4 star		20%
3 star		0%
2 star		7%
1 star		20%

See all 15 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

Strange.

By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER on February 1, 2002

Format: Hardcover

The "plot" of this novel is easy to summarize. Yair Einhorn, a 33-year-old, married man sees Miriam, a somewhat older woman, for five minutes at a party, never meets or talks to her, but instantly decides that she would be the perfect person to whom to bare his soul in letters. "We could be like two people who inject themselves with truth serum...I want to be able to say to myself, 'I bled truth with her. Be a knife for me,'" he says in his introductory letter to her. The first 2/3 of the book consists of Yair's long, self-analytical letters to Miriam, the rest of the novel consisting of Miriam's diary and a separate collage of their comments after the end of the correspondence.

Many readers will have a difficult time suspending disbelief as much as is necessary here to accept the basic premise of this novel--that a complete stranger can write a long, neurotic, and frighteningly personal letter to a woman who does not run away in terror and who, in fact, agrees to be his "knife." In this novel of words rather than actions, Yair says, early in his correspondence, "I never imagined that meeting a stranger's language could be as exciting as the first touch of her body," and he admits to feeling jealous when he finds, in newspapers and advertising, some of the same words Miriam has used in her letters. He also confesses that "something is building up...begging to burst out, something that will suffocate if it doesn't crack..." He admits that his emotional stability is "the size of a peanut." Still Miriam allows the correspondence to continue, even though his letters arrive without postmarks, hand delivered to her mailbox at work.Read more ›

2 Comments 34 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

This seems something new

By nancy lapidus on October 16, 2002

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is one of the toughest books I have ever read, but it seems to be important. The form is unusual - the first person character has a correspondence with a woman he saw at a school reunion. They agree never to meet, but to be completely frank in their letters. For the first 225 pages we read only one side of the correspondence, the man's. Another section contains the diary of the woman. The third section is murky - their thoughts merge, and they may or may not actually meet and interact together. It seems to be about people who are detached from their own feelings as well as estranged from others, even those closest to them. The man may be trying not to be like his father, but still ends up being as cruel and controlling to his own son. All of my conjectures are conditional, as some of the action is unclear, yet I found the book haunting and thought-provoking.

Comment 19 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

You Never Had An Affair Like This - 'Be My Knife Indeed' !

By A Customer on February 1, 2002

Format: Hardcover

In 'Be My Knife' acclaimed novelist David Grossman parses in the deepest way imaginable into the lives of 'Yair' and 'Miriam' who begin an affair of and in words only - a true epistolary tour de force. If you like dense extraordinary imagery, daring and completely off-the-wall thoughts, even more daring and off-the-wall actions, then YOU will love this book and you will continue to come back to it and dip into it, long, long after you have finished it. And after you have finished it, you will be changed. And you will look at your own relationships differently perhaps, even at yourself differently. Whether you have ever had an affair or not. And then you will want to read all his other books that have this amazing style and lack of fear. I rate this ace reading.

Comment 19 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

A wonderful and original novel

By A Customer on February 25, 2002

Format: Hardcover

This is one of the most moving books I have ever read. The subject, an affair conducted entirely by words, is engrossing. The language is beautiful and poetic. As soon as I was finished, I felt like reading it again, so as to be able to focus on all the small details I may have missed the first time. I did not find Yair's self-absorption disturbing. All of us are self-absorbed in so many ways, but few of us are capable of revealing our deepest secrets to another human being the way he is. And few authors are capable of presenting such an honest portrait of yearning, for another person and another life.

Comment 11 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

If you like Proust

By A Customer on December 1, 2002

Format: Hardcover

I've not read any Grossman before and I dislike much contemporary fiction. This book's not for everyone. But if you can get into the story of Albertine in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, then you can handle the intensity and intricacy (subtlety within overstatement) of BE MY KNIFE. The book never refers, I think, to computer communications, but the setup whereby an entire affair is conducted through the written word strongly suggests an online relationship. There is psychological depth here (as well as art) that superficial readers simply may not want...and (as in Proust) a lack of plot. I recommend it, however, for sheer emotional catharsis. The ending's problematic. There could not be any simple end to the emotions portrayed.

Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

a "high resolution" book

By Yael Sivan on October 6, 2005

Format: Paperback

I read the book in hebrew, not the English translation, so you may take my review with its limitations. I think this is a touching, extremely accurate (high resolution) book about a man and a woman, getting to know each other intimately without meeting. the book is about peeling off your layers of layers of dishonesty, your masks, and touching the essence of 'you' and 'I'. It is written in a rich langauge, with lots of little stories, ideas, imagery. I find it amazing that the author can write in completely different 'voices' when writing the man and when writing the woman. I think this book is above all an "experience" - you don't read it without you yourself exposing some bits of your true self to your self as you read.

1 Comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See all 15 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

One Star

Poorly translated. I was unable to finish it.

Published 1 month ago by Lauren Duell

Did I say, brilliant?

This is a story of roaring emotion. Why this, and why that, and what if, and what if not. Introspection ad nauseam - examination of the emotional self, that to my mind leads... Read more

Published on August 10, 2005 by Sidney Rosenberg

READ THIS BOOK

This book is a treasure, a rare gem, a unique and wonderful story of two people, Miriam and Yair and the potential of overcoming limitation and stagnation through the simple act... Read more

Published on May 18, 2005 by nat david

Haunting and memorable

Certainly not the easiest novel to get into, but with time and effort, "Be My Knife" packs an emotional punch that stays with the reader long after the last page has been turned. Read more

Published on August 16, 2004 by J. F Malysiak

For the self-analyzing, romantic 'thinker' in all of us

Another reviewer put it perfectly- this book isn't for everyone.
I found "Be My Knife" completely by accident one day while I was looking for something interesting... Read more

Published on April 11, 2004 by C. Jake Cordova

Boring, pointless, and pretentious

I read this to review it for a print publication. I kept wondering why the translators bothered to put it into English and why the publishers felt that it was worth the sacrifice... Read more

Published on January 1, 2003 by Carl L. Bankston

Cliche, anyone?

My mother always told me you should read the first twenty pages of any novel to find out if it will be any good or not. Read more

Published on October 7, 2002 by Rachel Guritz

If it wasn't Grossman, it would get a 1 star

I adore the books written by David Grossman. This is, to my mind, by far: the worst he's ever done. It was panned in other countries for good reason: It's absolutely juvenile and... Read more

Published on April 17, 2002 by Samantha Whitfield

good news, bad news

Oh good, I thought, David Grossman has written a novel with an adult protagonist. Yeah--with an emotional age of 12.

Published on February 23, 2002 by A. Hyde

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more

This item: Be My Knife: A Novel

Set up a giveaway