Since childhood, a book has always been one of the best Christmas presents. Back in time, during Communism, books like any other goods were difficult to buy. The market was usually friendlier before Christmas and books were one of the most treasured presents to be found under the Christmas tree.
Our family is no different. Once a year we order a bigger shipment from Slovakia and every one of us receives readings in our native language. In the last Bookworm’s favourites, we discussed the series for the pre-teenage girls while today we will look at contemporary Israeli literature.
Israeli authors are not so often translated into the Slovak language. It’s a pity because based on the two books I read in January, Israeli literature has a lot to offer.
I have read Hila Blum’s How to Love Your Daughter and Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s The Wolf Hunt. Blum’s book is available on the Finnish market in English, Finnish and Swedish languages. Gundar-Goshen’s book is not available at the moment, but her other novel called Waking Lions is available in English.
Hila Blum won in 2022 the prestigious SAPIR PRIZE for authors writing in Hebrew. The novel describes the relationship between a mother and a daughter, where the absolute mother’s love leads to the distance between the two, in the physical and psychological meaning.
The novel reveals a story changing the past with the present, where the parental love was unintentionally switched for possession. The mother felt like no one had ever loved their child so much, and the other relationships became less and less significant. The daughter in her attempt to break away from mom, must escape the relationship physically.
Blum writes neatly, with a great psychological understanding and I was not able to notice when exactly the mother’s love became toxic. The perfect reading to understand that a mother’s love can be too much to handle if the child becomes her only interest.
Gundar-Goshen is an Israeli psychologist and awarded author. Her novel The Wolf Hunt is in many aspects also related to mother’s love. The Israeli couple decided to move from Israel to the United States because they wanted to protect their only son from mandatory army service and other violence happening in their home country.
The novel reveals the antisemitism in the USA, where after the attack in the local synagogue, their son joins the Krav Maga self-defence club run by the Israeli veteran. Son’s behaviour changes and he becomes a suspect in the classmate’s death caused by the overdose at the party. The mother will soon learn about her son being bullied and the family will face their son’s decision to return to Israel despite all the potential dangers.
The book reads itself and you won’t be able to stop once you start. I questioned how much we really know about our children and how much they are uprooted when raised in another culture. The fact that we wanted to provide them with a better future might on the other hand cause their identity crises.
Both authors are great narrators and Israeli literature has been high on my must-to-read list. There have been books written on love, and also on mother’s love specifically, but these two books bring not only interesting storylines but also unique writing styles. The Bookworm recommends 🙂
