Hostage by Eli Sharabi translated into English by Eylon Levy

A couple of weeks back was chatting with an American-Jewish writer who just returned from Israel and on her storytelling voice she was rhetorically asking how the cruelties of 7/10 were possible? What monsters can do what the Hamas terrorists did to women, children, other humans?

Hostage by former hostage Eli Sharabi, translated into English by Eylon Levy is a testimony that can be only compared with the similar Shoah testimonies. It shows a permanence of the evil, generated this time from individuals growing up in a fanatic cultish ignorance or cultivating the same ignorance for the sake of illicit political and economic power. 

For 491 days, Sharabi, who is of Moroccan-Yemeni origin and an Arabic speaker, was kept barefoot, moved from one tunnel to another, humiliated, starved and ´offered´ to convert to Islam - as it happened to other captives as well. He was submitted to psychological terror, being lied they were abandoned and that Israel will be soon destroyed. 

Those fanatics for whom Titanic is a great newly released movie, clapped their hands for Iran, and predicted a massive Islamic take-over of the ´West´. They nicknamed Sharabi Abbas, as in Mahmoud Abbas or by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen, whom they despised. 

Sharabi and his other fellow hostages nicknamed their guardians as well, based on their physical features or behavior. It was their distraction in between the verbal and physical aggression they suffered, and their deteriorating health situation. Food, as in the Shoah memoirs, plays an important role in the survival strategies. But bravely, the solidarity won in the front of the efforts of their captors to create dissent in the group, due to the food rations. Every Friday evening they recited the Shabbes songs, and the next day the Havdala songs. They prayed in the morning. Another example of strength and survival.

Sharabi found out the day of his liberation that his brother, Yossi, also took captive from kibbutz Be´eri was killed. His beloved wife and daughters were killed on 7/10 and although he imagined this scenario, he was informed about only upon his return to Israel. 

It is so much tension in this book and you feel overwhelmed by the weight of the dramatic realities of the last two years. I think we should not try finding an answer about the human nature and how was it possible, but to find the best ways to never allowed such a cruelty to be committed. It is like the post-WWII history is written over and over again. 

I´ve had access to the book in the audiobook format, extraordinarily read by actor and coach Geoffrey Cantor. 

Book Review: Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi translated by Joanna Chen

The unnamed woman character of author and poet Tehila Hakimi´s debut novel Hunting in America, translated into English by Joanna Chen (here is an interesting dialogue between the author, the translator and the Jewish Book Council about the book) got promoted to the American branch of the Israeli company. A three-year contract as product manager, and the promise of a new life.

She moves, learns from the mistakes of addressing her colleagues in a very direct frontal way, not getting used with the tasteless food, and got invited by her direct supervisor to hunting. Weekend after weekend, this will be her intermezzo that makes the difference between work and non-work. And as she advances into the experience of the hunting her life takes a dark edge. Her job is unsafe, she is getting involved with David, her supervisor and hunting partner. 

First and foremost, except hunting - Hakimi brought the topic as a common bridge between Israel and USA - there is nothing else happening to the character´s life. (and here there are again similarities between the two cultures). The daily work instills importance and relevance to the day, consumes the energy. What else is left ? Therefore, the confusing experience of the hunting, where deers may acquire human features. Can you imagine the exhaustion of being took out of the safety of the office and the project management tasks? Work is an alienation (and the protagonist is fully alienated from herself during her intensive working episodes, manifesting her eating disorder) but not-work is a hallucination.

The timeline of the story is mixed, with the episodes leading to her American chapter being mixed with the accounts of the present time. The counting - ´on my first hunting in America...´ - split the story into different benchmarks. It is like an effort to make sense of a lonely life, who does not exist outside the work framework.

This is a short novel, that I´ve listen in few hours as audiobooks, read by Sharone Halevy - her use of the right Israeli accent at the right time in the story added more authenticity to the audio-reading.  

I´ve found the angle of the book very interesting, but sometimes a book built around a thesis may have shortcomings in terms of other elements, such as character development etc. But it is a concise explanation of the idea and would definitely love to read more by Hakimi, especially her poetry, hopefully in original.

Rating: 4 stars

Writing About 7/10

It is very difficult to write about ongoing traumatic events. The trauma of 7/10 is unfolding, although today more than two days ago there are more chances to see a closing - although not an end of it. 

Recently I attended at the International Festival of Literature Berlin a discussion about writing after 7th of October, with Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Julia F. Tzaisler and Yaniv Iczkovits. Gundar-Goshen, who is a clinical psychologist by profession, and was asked to offer assistance to those affected by the events, outlined that right now, the trauma the Israeli society is experiencing is still ongoing since two years. Healing requires at least a closing of the current state of affairs, meaning the return of the hostages and end of the ostilities.

Therefore, it is hard to read and think about the future of Israel when the past is in the making. The hope, that toxic hope that poisons sometimes our senses, requires a balance that only books can offer. Hence, an overview of three books I´ve read in the last years related to the 7/10, in German and English.

I classified the three books in a past-present-future timeline, although this does not reflect exclusively the sequence. But, we humans we need structure and categories to organise the world, even in the midst of the most terrible catastrophies. 

The Past: Israel.7. Oktober by Lee Yaron, translated into German by Maria Zettner, Sigrid Schmidt, Cornelia Stoll

This book by award-winner journalist Lee Yaron is my favorite approach on the current events so far. In 10 ´human stories´ she brings to the life of the written word personal histories of victims of the massacre. It is an enormous but worth every word of it, of oral history. It keeps the memory while outlining the diversity of destinies and the precious lives that were lost.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Present: Fenster ohne Aussicht by Dror Mishani translated by Markus Lemke

When 7th of October happened, crime author and literature professor Dror Mishani was in Toulouse. His diary of the time covering those first moments following the massacre until 10th of March 2024 were collected in a Tel Aviv diary translated into German as Windows without View (the translation belongs to me). Exactly as a windowless window, the words - his, his students´ - are hardly finding their way. For a while, he is not writing crime novels, he cannot do it right now, but took notes of the reflection of his memories and thoughts, with snipets of information, about this new society. Literature makes not sense, and his refuge are old prophets´ and the Ilyad. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Future: Fire by Ron Leshem, translated into German by Ulrike Harnish and Martin Lemke

Ron Leshem, the author of Fire - in the German translation, Feuer. Israel und der 7. Oktober - overviews Israel´ strategic mistakes, including regarding Sinwar, from the perspective of a future that must be focused on healing the trauma. It is a personal and society trauma, as Leshem had family members who lived in the kibbutzim and eventually got kidnapped. His insider knowledge combined with his analytic skills - he was a former intelligence officer gives a realistic chances of a difficult future yet not impossible to fathom. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review