Tzipi Honigman

A couple of months ago, Eric asked me to blog about my novel, The Correspondence Artist, and I decided to devote a week of posts to one of my characters, Duong Van Binh. I'm dedicating this week to another of the four fictional manifestations of my narrator's secret celebrity lover: Tzipi Honigman, the 68-year-old Israeli novelist who just won the Nobel Prize.

No need to feel ignorant if you've never heard of her: she's a figment of my imagination. My narrator's best friend says, "You know, I think Tzipi Honigman is the most beautiful woman in the world. She makes you think there's nothing sexier than a woman in her 60s." This is true. Look at her author photo:


If I had a little more courage, I'd also show you a picture of Tzipi's jealous ex, Hannah. My narrator describes the most famous image of her:

"I've seen a photograph of her pregnancy. She was so stunningly beautiful. Annie Leibovitz took a portrait of her, smiling beatifically over her perfect, soft breasts, the tendrils of her brown hair falling over her shoulders, her lovely round belly circled by Tzipi's unmistakably muscular and yet graceful, tanned arm. Tzipi was mostly out of the shot, obscured by Hannah's naked glory, but you could see her pressing her face into the back of her lover's neck.

"That was ten years ago. Hannah was 19. Tzipi was 58."