Hotel Cinema

Secular, tolerant, sun-soaked Tel Aviv was one of the world’s favored destinations for gay travellers, and the Hilton beach was its epicenter. But this majority gay stretch of sand was home to all, and most days it was crowded with a happy mix, individuals of all inclinations and ages, splashing, tanning, showering off the salt, flirting, digging, kicking soccer balls. Everything and everyone worked free and loose made its way to the Tel Aviv coast, as if someone had lifted the little country and tipped it sideways so all that was unattached rolled there.

Ben Corrin was unattached. His ex-wife, Laura, had long ago abandoned their apartment in Carroll Gardens and last year, while following a New York Times travel section “36 hours in…” itinerary with a friend, she had met a guy from London. She had stayed seventy-two hours: now she was living there. They remained in touch, nothing much had gone wrong with the marriage, except that in the early years Corrin had been absent for weeks on end. At first his job had seemed glamorous to Laura, later she said it was like being married to a sailor. By the time he was back on domestic duty they were too deep into isolation and their own lives. One night in the Cobble Hill movie theatre they tried to hold hands, but both somehow realized that all they wanted to do was let go. There were no kids, so that made it easier.

They exchanged emails from time to time. Laura had opened an antique store on the Fulham Road not far from her new home in Chelsea. At intervals she scoured French flea markets, returning with a van full of furniture to flip. Her new guy, Giovanni, an exile from Milan, and her junior by a decade, was the community manager on a social networking site. He made a lot of money. He stayed put.

Corrin looked around. A thin sliver of moon, the gleaming edge of a tin can, weakly silvered the night and three stars blinked in the encroaching darkness. He was alone on the beach except for two young men playing paddleball on the stained apron of sand where the surf rolled in. They volleyed with extraordinary ferocity, until one of them missed his shot and dove into the...