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Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is on the verge of celebrating her son Ofer's release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. In a fit of preemptive grief and magical thinking, she sets out for a hike in the Galilee, leaving no information for the 'notifiers' who might darken her door with the worst possible news.
Trade review
A modern "War & Peace", a profound novel about an Israeli mother and son, and the costs of war. Told in a series of powerful overlapping circles moving backwards in time, Grossman's rich imagining of a family in love and crisis has already been hailed as one of the great anti-war novels of our time. 'This is a book of overwhelming power and intensity, David Grossman's masterpiece... Wrenching, beautiful, unforgettable' Paul Auster