Impossible to resist this gorgeous cover designed by Jason Booher for Knopf (US), even though you're not likely to see it here in the UK. Beautifully simple, the tangled threads evoking contours on a map as well as the more obvious emotional tangles the novel sorts its way through.
It begins with three sick young people, alone and isolated in a hospital, one of whom, Ora, becomes the main anchor of the story. 20 years later her son is in the mililtary. Unable to deal with her dread that something terrible will happen to him, she sets off on a long walk, dragging her old friend and sometime lover Avram along. Avram has his own problems, traumatized by his experiences of torture when he was captured during the war with Egypt. He has been in self-imposed exile from Ora and her life for a long time. As they walk, they talk, and a process of change and possible healing begins for both of them.
I loved the way this was written, particularly the beginning, which was so alien and strange. It's not an easy read. It's long, and there's a sort of sustained emotional intensity to it that can feel exhausting. And yet gradually the novel gives up its secrets, and you feel you truly come to know these characters, and through them the troubled country they inhabit. Added poignancy comes from the fact that David Grossman wrote from experience – his own son was killed while serving in the Israeli army, and there's an emotional truth at the heart of this novel that – in addition to the beautiful prose – makes for compelling reading.
