Friendly Fire

by Yehoshua, Abraham B.

• ISBN13: 9780151014194
• ISBN10: 0151014191
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-10
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

A couple, long married, are spending an unaccustomed week apart. Amotz, an engineer, is busy juggling the day-to-day needs of his elderly father, his children, and his grandchildren. His wife, Daniella, flies from Tel Aviv to East Africa to mourn the death of her older sister. There she confronts her anguished, seventy-year-old brother-in-law, Yirmiyahu, whose soldier son was killed six years earlier in the West Bank by the "friendly fire" of his comrades. Yirmiyahu is now managing a team of African researchers digging for the bones of man's primate ancestors, and he desperately strives to detach himself from every shred of his identity, Jewish and Israeli. With great artistry, A. B. Yehoshua has once again written a rich, compassionate, rewarding novel in which sharply rendered details of modern Israeli life and age-old mysteries of human existence echo one another in complex and surprising ways.

Author Biography

A. B. YEHOSHUA is one of Israel's preeminent writers. His novels include Journey to the End of the Millenium, The Liberated Bride, and A Woman in Jerusalem, which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2007. He lives in Haifa.

 

Excerpts

1. THIS, SAYS YAARI, holding his wife tight, is where we have to part, and with a pang of misgiving he hands her the passport, after checking that all the other necessary items are tucked into the plastic envelopeboarding pass for the connecting flight, return ticket to Israel, and her medical insurance certificate, to which he has taped two of her blood-pressure pills. Here, Ive put everything important together in one place. All you have to do is look after your passport. And again he warns his wife not to be tempted during the long layover to leave the airport and go into the city. This time, dont forget, youre on your own, Im not at your side, and our "ambassador" is no longer an ambassador, so if you get into trouble . . . "Why get into trouble?" she protests. "I remember the city being close to the airport, and Ive got more than six hours between flights." "First of all, the city is not that close, and second, why bother? We were there three years ago and saw everything worth seeing. No, please dont scare me just as youre leaving. You havent slept well the past few nights, and the flight is long and tiring. Set yourself up in that nice cafeteria where we parked ourselves the last time, put up your feet and give the swelling in your ankles a chance to go down, and let the time pass quietly. You can read that novel you just bought . . ." "Nice cafeteria? What are you talking about? Its a depressing place. So why for your peace of mind I should be cooped up there for six hours?" "Because its Africa, Daniela, not Europe. Nothing is solid or clear-cut there. You could easily get lost or lose track of time." "And I remember empty roads . . . not much traffic . . ." "Exactly, the traffic is spotty and disorganized there. So without even realizing, you could miss your connection, and then what do we do with you? I beg of you, dont add to my worries . . . this whole trip is distressing and frightening as it is." "Really, thats too much." "Only because I love you too much." "Love, or control? We really do need to decide at some point." "Love in control," her husband says, smiling sadly, summarizing his life as he embraces her. In three years shell be sixty. Since her older sister died more than a year ago, her blood pressure has gone up a bit and she has grown scattered and dreamy, but her womanliness continues to attract and fascinate him as much as she did when they first met. Yesterday, in honor of the trip, she had her hair cropped and dyed amber, and her youthful look makes him feel proud. And so they stand, the man and his wife by the departure gate. Its Hanukkah. From the center of the glass dome, radiant in the reddish dawn, a grand menorah dangles over the terminal, and the light of its first candle flickers as if it were a real flame. "So . . . ," he thinks to add, "in the end you managed to avoid me . . . We didnt make love and I didnt get to relax before your departure." "Shh, shh. . . ." She presses a finger t

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Excerpted from Friendly Fire: A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.