Loss & Destination

Yoav Sagiv, a young man of 23, is about to start studying psychology at Tel Aviv University. Although he planned to live in the dorms, he gives in to his parents` request and goes to live with his old aunt, Hannah, who lives alone in a house near the university. At the same time he finds a job in the Lost and Found at the railway station in the city, and much to his surprise, he becomes so involved that it gradually takes over his life.

From this point on, the novel follows the stories of various people who have lost things that end up in Yoav`s office, and behind each item he finds an entire hidden world. There is Sharon, a girl who has lost love; Effi, a young soldier who has lost his self-confidence; an elderly man who feels that his grandson, Nimrod, is leaving him and his ways behind, to name but a few. And all the lost property that reaches Yoav, together with the stories, help him rediscover his own identity and enable him in turn to help Hannah deal with the loss that still dominates her life. For Hannah has lived her entire life in the grips of the past, mourning both her family and Avraham, the young man she loved, and who perished in the Holocaust. However, towards the end of the novel, Yoav discovers that Hannah`s lost love is in fact alive and living in Haifa. He thinks about telling her and wonders how she will react to the news that after the war, Avraham picked up the threads of his life, married and raised a family. He hesitates for a long time and then makes up his mind. The novel ends a moment before the denouement, when Hannah sinks into the depths of sleep, or death, as Yoav is on his way to tell her. Some lost things are not meant to be found.