Lovers and Strangers
Page 29
Then she lay down beside him on the floor. She was so exhausted, so full and engorged, that she couldn’t open her eyes to take in one more image. He got up and dressed with an odd, panicked speed. Then he lingered by the door for a long time, as if he already knew something and was afraid to step outside the place where everything was possible. She was surprised that he said nothing to her, and thought vaguely that perhaps he needed to be alone with himself for a while. She heard the door click shut behind him and smiled, and told herself with her seer’s certainty that he’d be back soon, and then they’d say goodbye properly. And although she didn’t have a drop of imagination, she fantasized about how they would stand facing each other, how they would be so embarrassed that they’d almost shake hands, and then she’d grasp him in her arms and they would embrace, and she’d feel the flutter of his lips against her neck for an instant.
That was what she thought, that was what she hallucinated and dreamed, and that was what she tormented herself with later, during all the years to come—the years of aridity, of longing, in a world which perhaps did not contain another boy like him. When she opened her eyes, she found the hotel already bustling with its daily noise; the quarry workers from the north had gone on their way long ago. She lay on her back for several more minutes, extremely quiet, and lamented something very transparent and rare that had passed her by, hovered for a moment, and disappeared.
I put down the last page. My neck and shoulders are hard as stone. Only after several breaths do I dare look up. Her lips are pursed. She’s focused on something.
“You and Melanie,” she says finally, shocking me by being completely unpredictable. “You’re happy together.”
She doesn’t ask. She asserts. I find it difficult to talk, so I nod my head.
“You and she, you’re good for each other.” She looks up at the ceiling with her eyes wide open, and I am completely shaken: How is it that she doesn’t talk about him? Or about him and her? How can she not say a single word about the ending I gave her and him? As if it has no importance to her, as if that is not the story now.
“I felt it so intensely all of a sudden when you were reading,” she sighs, “in the massage, at the end. I felt so strongly what you have between you.”
“Really?”
We are both quiet. Each submerged in herself. My heart suddenly flutters twice. A skip ahead and a skip back.
“Tell her to take care of you. Tell her from me.”
“I will.”
She reaches out. I put my face close to her. She runs her finger over my forehead. My eyes, my nose. My mouth.
“That mouth.” She smiles.
Which is slightly swollen with bitterness, I quote myself. Her hand climbs up. I put my head down. She draws wavy lines on the back of my skull. With her last remaining strength, she presses my throbbing painful spots. Even now her finger is smarter than my whole brain. Then, for an eternal length of time, roughly my whole childhood, I just sit there bent over, inhaling her touch. Her finger traverses with angelic gentleness, walking over the winding crevices of my brain, in the cold and sad regions, in the places that were always closed off to her, the places where—as she always knew, without resentment and without bearing grudges—she was betrayed.
“I’m so glad we finally talked,” she says.
June 2001
A Note on the Author
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s literature. His work has appeared in the New Yorker and has been translated into thirty languages around the world. He is the recipient of many prizes.
A Note on the Translator
Jessica Cohen is a translator based in Seattle. Born in England and raised in Jerusalem, she has translated several contemporary Israeli novels as well as Hebrew poetry and works of non-fiction.
By the Same Author
Novels
The Smile of the Lamb
See Under: LOVE
The Book of Intimate Grammar
The Zigzag Kid
Duel
Be My Knife
Someone to Run With
Nonfiction
The Yellow Wind
Sleeping on a Wire
Death as a Way of Life
Writing in the Dark
Also available by David Grossman
Be My Knife
‘Exhilarating … The peeling away of lies and social restraints to disclose the naked soul is gripping’ Daily Mail
An awkward, neurotic seller of rare books writes a desperate letter to a beautiful stranger whom he sees at a class reunion. This simple, lonely attempt at seduction begins a love affair of words between Yair and Miriam – two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, yearning for a sense of connection – and reawakens feelings that they thought had passed them by.
‘Impressive, extraordinary and exotic’ New York Times Book Review
Death as a Way of Life
‘A writer of passionate self-honesty, unafraid to ask terrible questions’ Nadine Gordimer
In autumn 1993 the Oslo Agreements were signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, marking the beginning of the promise of constructive peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The ten years that followed were charted first by hope and optimism only to deteriorate into revenge and violence. Throughout this decade David Grossman has published articles in the American and European press, written in a personal voice – father, husband, peace activist, novelist. As he witnesses devastating events, he cries out with a prophetic wisdom, imploring both sides to return to sanity, to negotiations.
‘This is an eclectic mix of reflections which reinforces Grossman’s position as a major political writer … Wonderful … This refreshing critique from the inside of the crucible helps us understand a little of what has been going on since Oslo’ Independent
Someone to Run With
‘Brings together the differing aspects of his writing in a book that unites social realism and dizzy teenage romance … This is a book about feelings, about highs and lows, chemical, emotional, religious’ Daily Telegraph
Assaf has reluctantly taken a dull summer job working for the City Sanitation Department. But the days take a strange turn when he is ordered to find out who owns a distressed stray Labrador and ask them to pay a fine. Across the city, the dog’s lonely owner, Tamar, is preparing her own mission - to rescue a young drug addict caught up in Jerusalem’s dangerous underworld. As Assaf searches the streets of Jerusalem for Tamar, his life is about to irreversibly change. All he can do is hold onto the rope around the dog’s neck as together they start to run…
‘Both a profound study of the inner lives of two teenagers and a novel that has pace, bite and a well-sustained plot … Beautifully drawn … An intensely gripping novel’ Financial Times
The Zigzag Kid
‘Astonishing … An unforgettable, burningly intelligent page-turner’ Mail on Sunday
A hijacked train whisks an imaginative young boy on an unforgettable adventure, during which he makes discoveries about his own family’s past and his richly textured fantasy world includes his irresistibly rum kidnapper and a wild woman who rescued his Israeli policeman father from a vat of chocolate.
‘Energetic characterization and abundantly imaginative plotting combine in an engaging and charming tale’ Guardian
Writing in the Dark
Throughout his career, David Grossman has been a voice for peace and reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian divide. In this groundbreaking collection of essays on literature and politics, he addresses the conscience of present-day Israel, a country that has lost faith in its leaders and its ideals. Writing in the Dark ends with the speech in which Grossman famously attacked Israel's disastrous Lebanon war that tragically took the life of his twenty-one-year-old son, Uri. Moving, brave and clear-sighted, these essays on literature, political ethics and the morality of the imagination are a cri de coeur from a calm voice of reaso
n at a time of doubt and despair.
‘The bravest and most clear-headed interpreter of the Israeli-Palestinian divide’ Observer
Order your copy:
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Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
Copyright © 2002 by David Grossman
Translation copyright © 2005 by Jessica Cohen
First published in Great Britain in 2005
This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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eISBN 978-1-4088-4631-5
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