Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers – Charles W. Eliot.
David is returning to Israel. He just received word that his father was attacked in his shoe store where he makes custom shoes as well as repairs, has died. When he returns to the country he has known for most of his life, given up his citizenship for because of bad memories and experiences.
There is a catch with his fathers will.
David doesn’t want to be in Israel for many reasons. Strange things start to happen once he arrives, his bad nightmares return with force. The history of the country he gave up on, his experiences in the Army, his father’s experiences throughout his life.
In his father’s will, there is a stipulation that David must produce a play that his father wrote which could turn violent, while dredging up a lot of the past that he has tried so hard to forget – as well as the people of his country have suffered, and of course the real reason why he is there.
I really enjoyed this novel. In a place where so much has happened, so much conflict in the past as well as the present between the Israelites, The Jews, and the Arabs.
Avner incorporates the grim reality of living in the area, some laughter, personal reflections into a gripping suspenseful novel that will have you turning each page and devouring every word.
I have to admit, I was taken so much by this book by the first paragraph, that I neglected things in my real life until I absolutely had to do them.
What would you do if the place you have called your home wouldn’t allow you to return if you wanted to?
Serey is caught in that situation. Currently living in Montreal where he meets Anne who is much younger in a jazz club. As Serey’s country is currently in the midst of a revolution, which includes murder, tragedy of such magnitude which leaves 1/7th of the population dead. The last he has heard from his family was years ago.
At first when Anne’s father hears of the relationship, he is against it because it reminds him so much of his own with Anne’s mother before she was killed in a car crash. He feels this is too close to home for it to be re lived again in another sense with his daughter.
Her mother essentially gave up her career, her life so to speak, to be able to marry and raise their daughter. Her father on the other hand is one that immerses himself into his work and to only come up for air when he absolutely needs to. Being a single father hasn’t been the most enjoyable experience for one that has been an academic most of his life, but he had help along the way.
Anne, being 16 and we all know at that age, when most teenagers don’t listen to her father’s advice and continues the relationship – going to jazz clubs, hanging out, learning words from his language, learning more and more about his culture and where he is from before the revolution began. Serey after a time decides it is time to return to his homeland to see what has happened to his family members, and to try and pick up the pieces of a life he once knew.
10 years later, Anne simply cannot get Serey out of her mind. Although, it has been so much time, you really cannot forget your first love. She has gotten on with her life – going to university, working, her love is just that a small part of her life. Until she makes the decision to travel to Cambodia one night when she thinks she sees Serey on television during footage of a demonstration there.
Despair is an unwitnessed life.
Once she arrives, she wanders around the busy streets of people trading and selling their wares illegally until she comes across some other ex pats who are there to help the people, and to rebuild. Once she finds Serey, it was if those 10 years never existed.
I was taken away from the first paragraph like I had stated at the beginning of this book. The writing is written like prose in poetry, moving and swaying with the jazz music that first brought them together. Although, from two different countries, there is a common thread throughout, their undying love for another, the differences of thinking between the 2 lovers, and the journey of love itself amongst war and tragedy.
I see your long silence as I see war, an urge to conquer. You used silence to guard your territory and told yourself you were protecting me. I was outside the wall, an intoxicating foreign land to occupy. I wondered what other secrets you guarded. Our disappeared were everywhere, irresistable, in waking, in sleeping, a reason for violence, a reason for forgiveness, destroying the peace we tried to posess, creeping between us as we dreamed, leaving us haunted by the knowledge that history is not redeemed by either peace or war but only fingered to shreds and left to our children. But I could not leave you, and I could not forget, and I did not know what to do, and I always loved you beyond love.
The Disappeared has been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for 2009.
Everyone this morning was awaiting the announcement of the Giller Prize longlist, now that it is, are you surprised, do you think they are missing anyone?
I recently just received The Disappeared, so hopefully, shortly I will be reading it and will post a review before the shortlist and the finalist is announced.
What book on this list are you looking forward to reading, some, all, none ? If you’re not sure then make sure to take a peek at the links I have provided to see if anything tickles your fancy.
For a total listing of what the Giller Prize is and who has been nominated previously, visit their site – Scotiabank Giller Prize
David is returning to Israel. He just received word that his father was attacked in his shoe store where he makes custom shoes as well as repairs, has died. When he returns to the country he has known for most of his life, given up his citizenship for because of bad memories and experiences.
I have to admit, I was taken so much by this book by the first paragraph, that I neglected things in my real life until I absolutely had to do them.