The Mermaid in the Bathtub, Hardcover

The Mermaid in the Bathtub is a charming, gorgeously retro retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic story "The Little Mermaid," by beloved Israeli author and illustrator duo Nurit Zarchi and Rutu Modan.

One day, a resolutely ordinary young man named Mr. Whatwilltheysay returns home to find Grain-of-Sand, a mermaid, waiting for him in his favorite armchair. Despite his objections, the two embark on a series of very watery adventures as he tries to get rid of her. But ultimately the thought of being seen with half a fish is simply too much for Mr. Whatwilltheysay to bear--what would people say? So broken-hearted Grain-of-Sand returns to the sea in his bathtub, leaving Mr. Whatwilltheysay to resume his pedestrian existence. Mr. Whatwilltheysay soon finds that his beloved landlubber life, however, lacks the splash and shimmer (and bathtub) of his good times with Grain-of-Sand--and acting against all his instincts, he sets off to sea to find her.

About the Author:

Nurit Zarchi is an Israeli poet and author for adults and children. Zarchi has published many poems in children's magazines and over 100 children's books, poetry, prose and research. Zarchi has received major Israeli awards including the Bialik Prize, the Ze'ev Prize (four times), and she was twice the winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for her literary work.

About the Translator

Tal Goldfajn joined the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at UMass Amherst in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology from the University of Oxford, and her B.A. in Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the author and editor of several academic works and her research interests include language and emotion, pragmatics and translation, translation theory and multilingualism.

About the illustrator

Rutu Modan is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist. She is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, and former editor of the Hebrew edition of MAD Magazine. She received a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for her book Exit Wounds in 2008.