What does the heroine of a modern fairy tale need after "Once Upon a Time" Well, four opinionated sisters, animals who talk (and are as exasperatingly outspoken as the sisters) and a flying scooter would be nice, for starters

Written with soft-pedaled irony, captivating charm, and tremendous heart, Lia Nirgad's As High as the Scooter Can Fly will seduce fans of Alice Hoffman, Angela Carter and The Little Prince it is the perfect grown-up fairy-tale.

Stuck in a small suburban house, with three daughters and an impressively dull husband who leaves her frozen inside, Layla dreams of far-off lands and a more fabulous life, asking herself, like Peggy Lee did, "Is That All There Is " (But don't we all sometimes !) With fairy tale logic, her wish for travel makes it so if you don't ask you don't get-and she discovers in her backyard a flying scooter, covered by vines, dead leaves and lots of dust. And of course, if you remember your dream and brush off the dead leaves and dust and untangle the vines, things can start to happen. And they do.

Layla embarks on a series of trips, while her sisters watch on but not silently. Liora, the eldest, nags Layla to grow up and settle down, and she has a potion to help. Lenore, whose eyes change from violet to blue before she plucks men's hearts out with her knife-sharp nails, urges Layla to find a lover. Lihi advocates denial, and Luna, long dead, visits Layla at night and sniffs her troubled dreams. And if these conflicting opinions weren't enough, Layla and her sisters are ruled by the Loveless Winds, which urge them to settle for security and to forget about love and passion. But are they right As Layla travels the globe, throwing herself headlong into life, she encounters everything a heroine deserves nothing less than the world, in all its rich confusion and voluptuous delight.

Lia Nirgad is a writer and translator, born in Belgium and raised in Nigeria, Argentina, and Israel, where she now lives. As High as the Scooter Can Fly is her first novel to be published in English; she has published two novels in Hebrew Like Jamaica and Alien Body as well as a children's story, "A Kiss for Shpunza," which has been televised for Israeli educational television. Her translations include Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, Lorrie Moore's Birds of America, and Javier Marias's El Hombre Sentimental.