Moris Farhi (1935–2019)

Publisher’s synopsis
Civilisation is on the brink of collapse. The people are controlled with Big Lies, mass surveillance and brutal suppression. What price would you pay for freedom?
Oric and his lover Belkis are part of a rebel band devoted to liberating people from totalitarian oppression. When Belkis is brutally murdered, Oric’s world is torn apart. Haunted by the thought that he could have done more to save her, he continues the fight for freedom that they began together. But Oric knows he doesn’t have long left before his nemeses, the self-professed Saviours, return for him too.
As the Saviours forge new alliances and grow ever-stronger, Oric must stay one step ahead to complete the mission he was born to fulfil. Here, in the darkest hour, Oric will discover that even the smallest of gestures can bring the greatest gift to mankind – hope.

Written as a fable, Moris Farhi's final novel (published shortly before his death on 5th March 2020) is told with a combination of passion and compassion, shining a laser-like beam on a world which is instantly and disturbingly recognisable, reflecting on its past and present horrors and injustices, on those intent on sowing discord and abusing power, as well as on those who are brave enough to confront them.
The enduring love-story of Oric and Belkis is at the heart of this novel: as Dolphineros they believe that ‘death is a lie’ and that when they’re killed their lives won’t end. Instead, they’ll become shape-shifting Leviathans, enjoying eternal life and acting as mentors to future Dolphineros, supporting them in their roles as emissaries of peace.
The time-shifting storyline gradually reveals how Oric and Belkis, along with a group of like-minded freedom-fighters, have travelled the world on their missions to rescue oppressed, persecuted people, attempting to put right injustices and to make the world a better place. However, in their attempts they constantly face opposition from the world’s Saviours, those who retain power by using race, religion, gender, xenophobia etc to incite conflict, inflame bigotry and to play on people’s fears and anxiety. The use of such a benign name for dictators would appear to be counter-intuitive but, as dictators usually gain power by convincing enough people that they are acting in their best interests, this was just one example of the author’s wonderful use of satire throughout his storytelling.
So much of the disturbing power of this story lies in the fact that everything is immediately recognisable in the author’s parallel dystopian world – the myriad abuses of human rights, the evils of religious fundamentalism, genocide, the effects of climate change, economic and political corruption, nuclear weapons, to name just a few examples. However, as a counter-balance, equally recognisable are characters who are passionate upholders of human rights, willing to put their own lives at risk for what they believe in. Although there are many disturbing and distressing examples of tyranny, horror, injustice and abuse as the story unfolds, the author ends it on a convincing note of optimism – quite a remarkable achievement.
Moris Farhi’s writing is lyrical and compelling, imbued with what appears to be his deep-seated faith in the power of humanity, goodness and optimism. Throughout my reading I was constantly finding myself stopping to think about what he had written, either to simply appreciate his eloquent use of language, or to reflect on the ideas he was putting forward. Then, when I reached the end, I found myself wanting to turn back to the beginning and to immerse myself in it once again, not only to gain fresh insights, but to hold onto a belief that, ultimately, that injustices can be put right and that good will, ultimately, triumph over evil. With its explorations of the ongoing challenges we face in today’s world and the thought-provoking reflections on almost every page, this would be certainly be an ideal choice for book groups.
Born in Turkey in 1935, the author moved to the UK in 1954 and, alongside his prolific writing career, he was a passionate human rights activist throughout his life. He was a member of Amnesty International, tireless in campaigning for social justice and, for more than twenty-five years, was an active campaigner for PEN Writers in Prison Committee, for writers persecuted and/or imprisoned by repressive regimes, being elected Vice-President of International PEN in 2001. I’m not in the habit of including biographical information about an author but I’m doing so now because I believe that it is these autobiographical elements which give credence to the central authenticity of this life-affirming novel.
As I finish this review, continuing to reflect on the impact it has had on me, I like to imagine that Moris Farhi has now become a Leviathan and that, using his eternal humanity, empathy and optimism, is now in a position to guide and protect all those who are prepared to fight against injustice, whatever form it takes.… (mehr)

A brutal tenderness: reviewing Moris Farhi's "A Designated man"

I read Moris Farhi's book in one sitting. Six hours. It was an incredible book. I don't want to use the word fascinating because I don't want to associate Moris's book with overused adjectival phrases. It's the sort of writing that makes me want to search for or create new adjectives to describe my responses to the book. Which is why I am using the oxymoron, brutally tender, to describe what I got out of reading the book.

It has a brutal theme: bloodletting and honour killing. But it also has the tenderness of love and life bravely resurging through the violence and death. Like arctic flowers that defy snow and ice and hard earth to snake their way out of a rockface and bloom like bright splotches of paint. To repeat the refrain, not tediously, but clearly and like an infrequent morningsong: life is holy, death is not, killing is the most unholy act. And loving, is a sanctifying act, with the power to regenerate, forgive, reconcile and thus, engender hope for future life.

On the smalll island of Skender, live the Kristofs, Goras, Rogosins,Kaplans, and others, their days preoccupied by age-old feuding. In fact, the main occupation upon Skender is feuding. And the majority follow it singlemindedly. The pattern of life on Skender is as follows: A member of one of the families is killed. This is swiftly followed by a killing in another family. Which is followed by yet another revenge killing.There is a constant engagement in revenge killing so that the cycle never ends.

It is the way of life on Skender. Upheld by the Law, which is in turn, upheld by the "Righteous Toma," harsh guardian of the Law. What is the Law? It is nothing other than the 'consecration of death' and the belief that revenge killing is honourable, that the family that remains unavenged is disgraced. In other words it is a glorification of death and killing. The Morituri are the young men and women who are being trained by Toma, to take over as future feudists and protectionists of The Law. They chant, "Honour!Strength! Honour!Death!"

Toma has brainwashed them into believing that willingness to embrace death at any time purifies one's blood. It is the only way to cleanse one's soul and to make the earth fruitful. With this distorted ideology of honour, he rules Skender with an iron spiritual hand.

Into this forgotten island, comes Xenos, the stranger, but he is no stranger. He is Osip Gora, son of Eleonora the falcon and Anibal, a former feudist who breaks away and solitarily believes that feuding is wrong. Fearless, unswayed by Toma's rhetoric,Osip chooses the friendship of Kokona, the ancient teacher and Dev, her lover. It is also interesting that Kokona and Dev and a young man Marius, form a minority that oppose the honour killings. On arrival on the island, Osip is almost killed by Bostan. Bostan is the deadliest of the feudists, a designated man.

The designated men are actually women in whose families all the males have been killed off. These women choose to become the avengers of the family name, dress as men and train to use guns to kill. Eleonora, Osip's mother was a designated man.

What happens to a civilisation when their women abandon mercy and the loving nature of women altogether to become men? It becomes doomed to die. Both Eleonora and Bostan became designated men to avenge their husbands. Eleonora is described as bloodthirsty and hungering for more blood as soon as she has killed. She becomes obssessed by the idea of honour, has no compunctions about sending away her young son so she can get on with the business of killing. Eleonora is soon killed.

Bostan lives a very dangerous life. With his skills as a sharpshooter, he hunts and is constantly hunted until the day he is shot and left for dead.

Rescued by Dev and Osip, Bostan or Bostana, is tended back to life by Osip with whom she falls in love. That changes her completely. Bostana reverts back to her womanly identity and gives up being a designated man. But this cannot take place without deep repercussions. Bostana's son Zemun, is an indoctrinated disciple of Toma. Blinded by Toma's teaching and his own desire to kill, he shoots his mother at the height of the reconciliation party. Osip Gora loses the woman he loves, after months of tenderly giving her life. He takes her body away and later, their charred remains are found at his estate.

The novel ends tragically. It is right. It is as it should be. Hope, if it is genuine, can be engendered, only out of deep darkness. As though it were a hard resurrection. Death-defying to the end. Resurrection can't have been easy. It took Christ three days and three nights to defeat death.

The lovers die. The harbingers of new life possibilities for the island of Skender die. But that is not all. The minority who do not support killing, grow. Kokona is alive though Dev dies and she remains the symbol of life lived with wisdom. She is the most powerful metaphor for the island, the woman who has seen so many deaths that she has grown immune to the fear of death. She is the island. She is the life that surges back.

This is the message of the book, the truth that life is more precious than death. Simple and profound. Like a parable whose truth we easily lose sight of but it never loses meaning. Walk out into the new Spring air and see a crocus pushing up through hoary frost and trying to bloom, that is what the book evokes, the fragile and yet tenacious grip love has on life and the way it gives hope back to it.

This book has tremendously moved me. Once in a long while comes along a writer with great power, of words, yes, but not just of words alone, a writer with a great heart whose heart shows through in his writing. I believe in the message of Moris Farhi here. I don't feel embarrassed to be a bit hyperbolic. If all the world could read this book, there would be no more wars.
Amen.

- Easterine Kire.… (mehr)