The speakers are Jews and Arabs, ranging in age from 22 to 72. They include students and teachers, a waiter, a prostitute, a journalist, and a janitor.

Some are married to women, some are “married” to men, some are single; their families come from Yemen, Germany, Morocco, Romania, Egypt, Russia.

They talk about their family backgrounds and early childhood memories, their first stirrings of sexuality and responses to those feelings.

They reveal their emotional struggles as well as their religious and political views.

By allowing these men to render their different worlds in their own words, their voices produce a layered chorus approximating the vibrant cacophony of the Israeli street.

A remarkably rich assemblage of anthropological fieldwork, the book also can be read as literature―there are some fine storytellers here―or for pure human interest, as the narratives themselves are deeply moving.