The Salt Line [2 vols.]
In 1904, a wounded Russian Jew turns up in northern India on the run from his pursuers and his own conscience. He doesn’t miss anyone—neither his parents nor the pregnant girl he has deserted; his people or his revolutionary comrades. He is cared for by an English doctor who is obsessed with the man who stole his wife from him in Rome, and has devised a scheme to lure his rival, an archeologist, to the region and take revenge on him.
From this twofold infrastructure founded on the betrayal of colleagues and family members, two separate plots emerge. In one, we see acts of terrorism against the Tsar and his ministers, in early 20th century Russia; in the other, a caravan goes into the desert on a private journey of revenge insane but very practical.
The heroes—Russians, British and Indians—range from those who believe in an ideal or a god, to the entirely faithless; from St. Petersburg to a remote district capital in the Indian Himalayas, and from snowy mountains to arid dunes. A hundred years later when the Russian’s grandson comes from Israel in order to investigate his grandfather’s disappearance, it is not only the family aspect that motivates him. Slowly, he approaches the misdeeds his grandfather had been implicated in. But the revelations go further and also touch his own life.
What seemed at first to be a story about distant exotic events finally turns its spotlight onto the here and now.
An outstanding novel in which one moment of hesitation, one decision— is repeated—and no one knows if there is a way out.
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“Few novels such as this have been written in literature in general and in Hebrew literature in particular … The Salt Line is a novel that gives the reader a jolt, both intellectual and emotional. Its importance lies in its attempts to observe and understand the functioning of human agency in general and Jewish-Israeli human agency in particular. ”
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“A monumental masterpiece … The novel’s powerful, mature narrative voice produces a flowing read that one follows with unbroken interest … Captivating and engrossing … [Shimoni displays] marvelous skill for telling a story, with power, intensity and rare virtuosity. ”
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“ You have created a vast world. You have created a number of worlds. And for two weeks I have been passing through your worlds and on almost every page new vistas are revealed. Vistas and sounds and smells and tastes as well as threads leading from one world to another page by page. This vast book contains some lofty peaks the likes of which I do not know many … A glorious and mighty book. In a few weeks time I shall return to read it … and I shall restrain myself from commencing a rereading right away … In the meanwhile thank you for this wonder. ”