This touching 2006 novel by popular Israeli writer Meir Shalev is a tender love story of two generations. The preceding one set before and during the 1948 War of Independence, when Western support was assured, and its successor, modern tale amid the widespread anti-Zionism spurred by Islamist and older hatreds.
The precedent determined the successor, the latter being impossible without the former, and that’s all I’m going to say about the plot. Except that it surprised me and I always like to be surprised by a story. The English translation of the Hebrew is easy and simple until, as in all good literature, you encounter some startlingly memorable phrase or idea. The story is happy and sad, funny and melancholy. Like life, only more coherent.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 