The Smile of the Lamb
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In a chorus of voices David Grossman's The Smile of the Lamb tells the story of Uri, an idealistic young Israeli soldier serving in an army unit in the small Palestinian village of Andal, in the occupied territories, and his relationship with Khilmi, a nearly blind old Palestinian storyteller.
Gradually as the violent reality of the occupation that infects both the occupier and the occupied alike merges with the old man's stories, Uri, captivated by Khilmi's wisdom, tries to solve the riddles and deceits that make up his life.
Originally published in Hebrew in 1983, The Smile of the Lamb is a novel of disillusionment and a piercing examination of injustice and dishonesty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers of the complex and challenging See Under: Love or the highly praised nonfiction The Yellow Wind know Israeli writer Grossman as a virtuosic chronicler of his country's psychic health and conscience. This provocative work, his first novel, predates Love and is written in a more accessible style. Four narrative voices, each deeply individualized, relate the events of one fateful day, with flashbacks to the past. Uri Ladiano is an Israeli of Iraqi descent, an outsider. Uri's innocent smile symbolizes his idealistic view of human nature and of Israel's responsibility to the Arabs living in the occupied West Bank. The old Arab, Khilmi, is an outsider, too; deformed, considered crazy, he has raised a retarded boy who was exploited by El Fatah and killed by Israeli soldiers. The cynical military commander, Katzman, is a Holocaust survivor incapable of love; his is the only voice not directly heard but transmitted through third-person narration. The fourth voice belongs to Shosh Avidan, a highly intellectual psychologist, Uri's wife and Katzman's clandestine lover, who has two soul-destroying secrets, one about her father and the other involving the death of one of her patients. Grossman sets a critical juncture of these characters' personal lives against the moral and ethical corrosion of the Israeli occupation. Wrenching scenes give empathetic consideration to the feelings of both Arabs and Israelis in the pre-intifada environment as Grossman searchingly describes the shame and guilt that a distortion of justice brings to a civilized society. This is an unforgettable work by an acutely sensitive observer and a master of his craft.
