A psychological thriller about four Israeli women and their biblical role models

In her first book to be translated into English, Israeli writer Sarah Blau has created a psychological thriller in which the main characters are committed feminists and wonderful, multiface­ted human characters, concerned not just with their place in the world but also with their place as women who connect to biblical female role models.

The “others” of the title are the childless women in the Bible. For the four college friends who each pick one of these women—Miriam, Michal, the witch of Endor, and Lilith—as their Purim costumes, these figures take on a personal significance. (There’s also a hamster named Jezebel, whose affection for her offspring does not amount to allowing them to live.) The four women create a pact, promising not to have children.

The mystery opens years later, with the shocking murder of one of the four. The public intellectual and feminist Dina Kaminer is found dead with her hands glued to a doll and the word mother carved on her forehead. The narrator, Sheila Heller, says of her college friend, “And I couldn’t help but think, There you have it, Dina, you’re finally a mother.” Dina is an advocate for a movement of women who choose not to have children—a subversive stance in Israel where fertility is seen on a level almost sacred. Who would want to retaliate against her in this violent and shocking way?