Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

In hon­or of David Gross­man mak­ing Amazon’s top ten this year, and with the win­ter issue going in the mail next, we thought we’d offer a lit­tle pre­view from the issue (more online reviews to fol­low over the next few weeks).

To the End of the Land
David Gross­man; Jes­si­ca Cohen, trans.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. 592 pp. $27.95
ISBN: 9780307592972

Reviewed by Maron L. Waxman

1967Three ill teenagers — flame-haired Ora; Avram, wild with imag­i­na­tion and exot­ic knowl­edge; and Ilan, lat­er his com­pan­ion in all exploits — meet in the iso­la­tion ward of a hos­pi­tal. Young, vul­ner­a­ble, eager for them­selves and one anoth­er, they come togeth­er night­ly in the almost dream­like pro­logue to this pow­er­ful and mem­o­rable novel.

2000. Thir­ty-three years lat­er, Ora is alone. Ilan has recent­ly left her, and she has just dropped their younger son at his army unit’s meet­ing point for an emer­gency call up. In a rush of mag­i­cal think­ing, she decides that she can pro­tect her son by tak­ing a hike in the Galilee that she had planned for the two of them. She will dis­ap­pear, and the noti­fiers, the bear­ers of the unbear­able news, will not find her. As she makes the final prepa­ra­tions for the hike, the phone rings. Avram, Avram who has not spo­ken with her for three years, Avram who crawled into a shell decades ago after sur­viv­ing hor­rif­ic tor­ture as a pris­on­er in the Sinai cam­paign. Lit­er­al­ly drag­ging him from his apart­ment, Ora takes Avram to the Galilee with her.

Over their long days and nights togeth­er, walk­ing through bright spring blooms with val­leys open­ing before them, Ora and Avram reel back through their lives, apart and togeth­er. Slow­ly, mov­ing back­ward and across time, the sto­ry of the three inter­twined friends and lovers unfolds. It is a sto­ry of com­plex and inti­mate con­nec­tions marked by mul­ti­ple loves — love that cre­ates a fam­i­ly, sen­su­al love, love between insep­a­ra­ble friends, love for army com­rades, love of the very earth Ora and Avram are tread­ing — all shaped by inescapable war and the ten­sions it imposes.

Beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten and ful­ly real­ized, this is a nov­el of great depth and artistry. David Gross­man, one of Israel’s most hon­ored writ­ers, con­veys the vital­i­ty and human­i­ty of every char­ac­ter, etched against the inten­si­ty and pain of life in the dai­ly pres­ence of an ene­my. There is not a page of this book that does not call out for an end to war.

Maron L. Wax­man, retired edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor, spe­cial projects, at the Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, was also an edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor at Harper­Collins and Book-of-the-Month Club. She also leads edi­to­r­i­al workshops.

Maron L. Wax­man, retired edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor, spe­cial projects, at the Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, was also an edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor at Harper­Collins and Book-of-the-Month Club.