Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory

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.

Here’s a sweet comic novel for fans of Etgar Keret and Aimee Bender about a family’s tech startup that’s based on a miracle invention (it’s a souped up vacuum cleaner) that turns sand into rain clouds and creates family havoc and possible love for Eli Lilienblum, Sarai Lilienblum’s twenty-something son.

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.

Story Locale: Israel