Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory: A Novel [Hardcover]

A comic novel for fans of Adelle Waldman about a tech startup that turns sand into rain clouds from Sami Rohr prize winner Iddo Gefen.

Our story opens with Mrs. Lilienblum discovered drinking a martini in a crater in the Israeli desert. Eli, her adult son, tries to understand what happened to his wacky mother, while he also tackles the legend of a missing hiker named McMurphy, and whether he might be in love with Tamara, a visitor to his family’s hostel on the edge of a crater.

The story races forward as the Lilienblum family builds a company around Eli’s mother’s invention and makes comedy out of startup culture, the obsession with company valuation and funding, the secrets families keep, romantic and family love–all with humor, warmth and compassion. Like the rain in the desert, Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory is a surprising, light refreshment.
—Debra Cash, Arts Fuse

[W]acky, otherworldly and charming.
—Lior Zaltzman, Kveller

“[A] comic masterpiece . . . the novel’s many savvy moments . . . reveal its undeniable humanity and make it such a delight.”
—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness

“[Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory is] an endlessly entertaining send-up of startup culture as well as a story about families, love, and secrets.”
—Naomi Firestone-Teeter, GOLDA

“Iddo Gefen has produced a marvelous novel­—wise, surreal, funny and a fascinating story. Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory has traces of Gabriel García M&ls.