The Gecko

A frightened military driver shoots a black cat that passes him by. Impelled by self-destruction, a soldier with a smashed face―and soul―ambushes his girlfriend and his close friend. Another soldier, probably Aloni himself, feels that he has no right to tell stories to his friends because he was moved to a position in the rear. Whether they are soldiers dealing with war, or ordinary people, Aloni’s characters undergo a process of self-discovery, revealing the huge price of war and of living in its shadow. But for the reader, the experience has also another dimension as he dives into the grotesque, colorful, almost surrealistic world that Aloni creates here, quite different from his plays.

An intriguing and disturbing collection that includes stories never before published in book form, and a novella, The Gecko, recently discovered in the Nissim Aloni Archive.