One Night, Markovitch

On the eve of World War II, a group of young men set out from pre-state Israel to Europe. Across the sea, a group of Jewish girls whom they have never met await them. The aim: fictitious marriages with which the girls will be able to escape Europe and reach the Jewish homeland, then under British rule. Two of the young men are close friends, but very different from one another. Ze’ev Feinberg, a daring fellow, tall and muscular, sports a mustache and is used to having women fall at his feet. The other, Ya’akov Markovitch, is a nondescript, drab guy without charisma; no woman has ever taken a second look at him. Nevertheless, it is Markovitch who is allotted the prettiest woman, Bella Zeigerman. He falls head over heels in love with her, and when they reach Israel he refuses to give her a divorce. He suffers humiliation, threats, even beatings, his friend abandons him, but he persists in the hope that Bella will love him some day. But it is not to be.

Bella struggles for her freedom against the backdrop of war in Europe and Israel’s War of Independence, with the plot going to and fro between the little individuals and the great events around them, which have a mythic quality to them.

Gundar-Goshen’s colorful debut novel relates the Zionist narrative in a fresh and humorous way. Storied leaders make love to women whose skin has the scent of oranges; brave officers conquer fortresses with the help of cripples, drunkards and gamblers, and Ya’akov Markovitch wanders around among them, driven by his passion and stubbornly holding on to the beautiful Bella.