When Soumchi, an eleven-year-old growing up in British-occupied Jerusalem just after World War II, receives a bicycle as a gift from his Uncle Zemach, he is overjoyed-- even if it is a girl's bicycle. Ignoring the taunts of other boys in his neighborhood, he dreams of riding far away from them, out of the city and across the desert, toward the heart of Africa. But first he wants to show his new prize to his friend Aldo. It is when he agrees to swap his bicycle for Aldo's new train set that Soumchi's misadventures begin, involving a neighborhood bully, a runaway dog, a lucky pencil sharpener, and a purloined love poem written for his classmate Esthie. He imagines ways out of his predicament--everything from escaping to the Himalayas to kidnapping the King of England. In the tradition of such memorable characters as Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield, Amos Oz's Soumchi is fresh, funny, and always engaging.