Quirky and original. A recommended purchase for collections where offbeat fiction is popular. Will likely appeal to readers of Robin Sloan.

3.5 rounded up to 4

Inventor Sarai Lilienblum disappears from her family-run lodge, to be later found in the middle of a crater in the southern Israeli desert, drinking Martini in a bathrobe. Her newest invention, a repurposed vacuum cleaner which promises to turn desert sand into rain clouds, goes viral through social media, and from that point on, the whole family commits to build a start-up to achieve the production of the cloud factory on a larger scale.

This one is the story of a family, of sacrifices made for the sake of the unity of the family: we have Mrs. Lilienblum, a talented inventor who gives up on her career dreams to follow her husband in opening a touristic lodge in a little village in the desert; Naomi, the eldest daughter, who quits her successful job in Tel Aviv to support her family in building this start-up; Boaz, the father, whose sacrifice will be clearer towards the end; and finally, Eli, the narrator (the story is in third person, but the focalisation is internal) who sacrifices his personality to please the other members of his family.

The novel is labelled as "comic", which I somewhat agree, especially when describing the building of the start-up (which is a hell of a mess at the beginning, reflecting the chaos the protagonists brings to the party) and the ruthless world of venture capitals and business angels (whose aim is not to foster creativity or the possibility of a better world, but rather -surprise- more money). I greatly appreciated this satirical approach.

What I had some issues with are the characters. We have Sarai who, once she's in the start-up, completely avoids responsibility (ok, understandable when you have the whole picture, but she made my eyes roll quite a few times); then Boaz and Naomi, who are one the mirror image of the other, they both left me disappointed in the end.

Eli is a passive narrator: aside from his active endeavours to solve the mystery of McMurphy (and OH BOY did he solve it... *sad face* *screaming*), he's quite passive in the start-up. Everybody does things behind his back, despite him being the co-founder, so most of the times he's a spectator I felt some pity for.

Overall, the characters are perfectly imperfect, which I think was the aim. Does that mean that I liked them? Not necessarily. (taste!)

I commend Gefen's writing style, as the story could have induced excessive pathos in some places, but he managed to beautifully tell this story without useless pleasantries.

I think this upcoming title will sit well with readers who enjoy a contemporary family story. It’s a bit of a stretch for me to agree with this book’s classification as a satire. While there are some elements of poking fun at tech startups that I was originally drawn too, I did not find them to be particularly deep or interesting.

Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory is quite lighthearted, and has some nice buildup around a hiker’s disappearance at the beginning of the novel. I think the author tried to take on a few too many throughlines, however. In particular, the introduction of magical realism via shared dreaming did not lead anywhere, nor did it add anything to the plot. As a result of trying to take on too much, I think the book struggled to wrap up in the end, and some characters’ stories ended rather abruptly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review! Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory is scheduled to be published in April.

I thought I’d enjoy this but I ended up finding it boring. I found I was avoiding picking it up and reading is not supposed to feel like a chore.
Hopefully your experience is different to mine.

This book was pretty good. I think it was a little bit dance at times, but it had lots of good tips and information for people interested in setting up their own start up company. I think it was entertaining and a very insightful.

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!