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The Day of the Countess [The Palace of Shattered Vessels, vol. 3]

David Shahar

The Day of Countess continues its evocation of life in Jerusalem. Jerusalem under the mandate, before the Nazi genocide, but where the presence of Arabs already stands out as an irritant. A latent threat permeates the atmosphere of the novel. In front of Café Gat in Jerusalem, Gabriel Luria plays the violin, Orita Landau dances, and effendi Boulos invites everyone to the King David Hotel… This is the last “enchanted day” that the narrator remembers, with nostalgia. The Arab riots of summer 1936 broke out the following week and the small group of friends is shattered. Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians who had lived in mutual tolerance, all take stands against one another in a world where, now, “a man does not acknowledge his own brother.”

Louidor, from Russia, grasped the deception immediately. His arrival in Jaffa was a shock: It was an Arab sailor who brought him from the ship to the boat and from the boat to the land of Israel. Jaffa was filled with Arabs.
Languages
Estonian, French
Representation
The Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature
Title The Day of the Countess [The Palace of Shattered Vessels, vol. 3]
Writer's Last Name Shahar
Writer's First Name David
Genre Fiction
Publisher (Hebrew) Am Oved
No. Pages pp.
Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) Yom Ha-Rozenet

  • “ Finally, a refreshing writer, with his humor and truculent lucidity. At the time of the worst fanaticism and strongest anathema, he reminds us that life—this pious lie, this sweet illusion—is tolerable only if people look after each other. ”

    Information Juive

  • “ Shahar’s attempt to recreate this lost past has led French critics to dub him the Israeli Proust. ”

    The Independent

  • “ Shahar has immortalized life in Jerusalem during the British Mandate with a power that no other author achieved. ”