Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick

 

Next Stop, the debut roman by rabbi and writer Benjamin Resnick, is not the kind of book to start your Jewish New Year round of readings. 

Set few decades into the future, the book is set into a world where the state of Israel was swipped into a black hole and the Jews in America are gathered into a ghetto-like area called Pale - a direct reference to the Pale of Settlement, a region that was assigned between the 18th and 20th century within the Russian Empire for the Jews where confined with limited mobility outside the area.

The events unfold through the eyes and experiences of Ethan and Ella. He, a writer, she a photojournalist with a son, Michael, that will be send in the end out of Pale with a children train transport. The crisis is deepening from a day to another, with mysterious holes consuming airplanes, among which the one where Ella´ sister was. 

I am not a fan of sci-fi or apocalyptic stories, but the depiction of antisemitism - both verbal and its violent form (no iron dogs, but still...) - hit the chord we are experiencing in Europe and North America and far beyond in the last three years. If there is something to keep in mind - over and over again - after reading this book, is the permanence of hate against Jews, combined with the inevitable rays of light brought by solidarity of humans in moments of crisis.

It is a dark read, patched with hope and humour at times.