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| Yosef Haim Brenner |
Breakdown and Bereavment |
| Novel |
Palestine, Shtibel, 1920; Tel Aviv, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1978. 247pp.
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Brenner's last novel is set in a Jewish settlement in Palestine in the years before World War I, when the tragic pattern of Arab-Jewish relations was taking shape. Much more than an absorbing period piece, it is a story of the individual suffering and loneliness that are part of the human condition. The hero, Hefetz, is a typical Brenner character, a wanderer in search of a spiritual homeland. His desperate attempt to build a new life in Palestine symbolizes the Zionist experiment as a whole.
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About the Book
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David Patterson stated. "Brenner's talent reaches its height in this novel ....A blend of penetrating insight, poignancy, honesty, compassion and artistry, the novel constitutes a human document of high order."
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