Assaf, an Israeli Air Force pilot whose plane is shot down
over Lebanon, bails out behind enemy lines. It happens in the mid-1980s, and a
bloody civil war between various militias is raging in Lebanon. The wounded Assaf expects
that he’ll be rescued by the Israeli army, but he is captured by one of the
Shi’ite organizations. In Israel, his wife Ruth, in late stages of pregnancy
with their son, tries in vain to find out what has happened to her beloved
husband.
The novel is told in two voices, that of the pilot who has
vanished in Lebanon, and that of the woman who has been left without him. Who
is right: those who surmise that he is dead, or those who are convinced that he
is still alive? Will the pilot’s wife get
the answer to the question that is tormenting her? And how does one break free in a complicated place like the Middle East,
where a person can be a total stranger, a persecuted refugee, or an exile
seeking asylum only a few kilometers from the place where he was born?
Assaf makes several attempts to escape but he is caught and
ends up in the hands of Hizballah. He is transferred to Damascus, returned to
Lebanon, undergoes physical and mental torture, and is moved around from one
village to another. Finally, he is taken in to the home of Abu Shams, a
Lebanese village doctor, who gives him a new life and a new identity. Assaf
learns Arabic, starts a new family and becomes Yusuf, a doctor specializing in
herbal remedies. He wanders from village to village in the enchanted
country landscapes, healing the ill and gaining admiration. He achieves his
freedom and attains peace, but needs to tell his story to Ruth, whose soul is
still tied to his soul.
The Lost Pilot’s Wife tells
a suspenseful story that exceeds the limits of imagination, an exciting drama
of survival, against the backdrop of a
conflicted political and
military situation.
PARTIAL ENGLISH
TRANSLATION AVAILABLE (for publishers only).
REVIEWS
Tsur Shezaf has
chosen to tell a big, dramatic, familiar story, and he does so in a decidedly
respectable way … The Lost Pilot’s Wife can be viewed, first of
all, as the story of an area with an enchanting, unique landscape—war-torn
Lebanon—which Shezaf describes so wonderfully … There is something in Shezaf’s
descriptions of the landscape, and in his phenomenal grasp of local geography
and botany, which serves as an incredible, even magical ground for a major
story, politically and militarily speaking. On this ground, Shezaf creates a nerve-wracking
story … Shezaf navigates the plot with an impressively masterful hand, and
takes it to places with the potential for melodrama, without allowing the
melodramatic concoction to boil over. The final scene is an impressive literary
episode of restraint and precision … Shezaf positions his story within a
bubbling stream of political lava, but what stands out is that he does not take
a judgmental stance: there are no good guys and bad guys in this story, just as
there probably aren’t in reality … Assaf Vardi’s story, and mainly his
decisions, make him a special and unconventional character …a character with
impressive depths, who enters deep into our hearts.
Amichai Shalev, Haaretz
Shezaf charges the space
in which the characters roam with lyricism, symbolism and mystical meanings … The
geographical expanse becomes fertile ground for illustrating the soul’s depths.
Every plant, every plot of land, and every landscape are depicted with great
esteem for their medical or purposeful significance for the characters, the
emotions and memories they evoke, and their concrete and dramatic effect on the
situation. The plot of The Lost Pilot’s Wife moves between
these different layers, and Shezaf skips among them with ease and sensitivity …
The Lebanese expanses allow the author to expand the borders of literary
expression, with impassioned descriptions of flora and landscapes, which he
connects impressively with Assaf’s psychological processes.
Yotam Shwimmer, Ynet
Not only because of
the degree of empathy that the book elicited in me did I love it. Shezaf has
succeeded in telling a story that is enthralling and mesmerizing (and also
surprising) and to tell it in two first-person voices, of a man and of a woman,
both of whom are convincing in their authenticity … Shezaf manages to sketch a
logical and reasonable imaginary situation, even though it is very different
from all the slogans and mantras that we are used to and that we prefer to hear
in real life. That is how he envelopes the reader, hypnotically draws him into
a painful, soul-lacerating story … From the moment I began reading the book, I
could not put it down; from the moment I finished reading it, it has not left
me alone. Perhaps because the options that Shezaf offers are painful, but very
human. Perhaps simply because it is an outstanding book. Bottom line: A book
captivating in its Israeli-ness, that one reads with bated breath.
Orit Harel, Motke
This is a book that
gives something. It is in the present, it is interesting. It tells an excellent
story … It can be said that this book depicts a situation that touches all of
us … The book served me as a riveting, pleasant guide, replete with information.
I followed the paths that it showed me willingly, painfully, in wonderment and
in astonishment.
Hadar Zafrir, Saloona