Rosenfeld

In Kessler’s raw if uneven debut, a couple negotiate their possibly destructive obsession with each other. When aspiring filmmaker Noa Simon meets Teddy Rosenfeld at a wedding in Tel Aviv, their attraction is immediate. Teddy, CEO at a production company, hires her to make promotional films, and they embark on a professional and romantic relationship. Noa is infatuated with the “beautiful, fat, sexy, despicable” Teddy, who is as financially generous as he is emotionally withholding (“My entire existence is reduced to the need for being the object of his desire, and all other components of life become redundant,” Noa narrates). Turns out they both have mother issues: Noa is estranged from hers, while Teddy reveres his, maintaining her apartment as a “mausoleum,” according to Noa, after her death. As the relationship progresses, Teddy’s reticence, insistence on control, and imperious meddling eventually push Noa to her breaking point. The novel tends to drag when the two lovers are apart, but the characters come alive during the sex scenes, their desire for each other radiating off the page. Outside the bedroom (or the bathroom, or the stairwell, or the car), the story gives off less heat. This one overstays its welcome. Agent: Deborah Harris & Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs, Deborah Harris Agency. (Nov.)