S. Yizhar (1916–2006)

Khirbet Khizeh is an Arab village in the newly formed state of Israel, designated to be cleared by Israeli forces, made uninhabitable, and its occupants exiled. The novel, originally published in 1949 and written from an Israeli soldier's perspective, it was only recently translated from Hebrew. While nearly seventy years since the birth of the Israeli state and the genesis of this story, it expresses a fundamental tension that still exists: a many-times exiled Jewish people find themselves doing the same unto another group. It's a short, thought-provoking read, told by someone who understands the stress, the fear, the boredom, and the conflicts that can arise between duty and conscience in service to the state. I can't speak to the quality of the translation, but I can say it's expressed beautifully in English. The NYT book review intrigued me enough to read it http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/books/review/khirbet-khizeh-by-s-yizhar.html… (mehr)