Sadness Is a White Bird

December 18, 2017
Rothman-Zecher’s outstanding debut takes its title from a Mahmoud Darwish poem: “Sadness is a white bird that does not come near a battlefield.” On the cusp of adulthood, Jonathan returns with his family from America to Israel, which means that soon he must serve in the Israeli army. Having been told the tragic stories of his Jewish ancestors, this service to his people is something he dreamed of as a boy. But after meeting the daughter and son of his mother’s Palestinian friend, twins named Nimreen and Laith, whom Jonathan dictates his story to, the lens through which he views the world changes. In poetic, epistolary prose, Rothman-Zecher describes Jonathan’s growing love for Nimreen (“the tangled curtain of her blackbird hair”) and for Laith, “voice soft like your sister’s, loamy like the ground,” whose sweet, lazy disposition provokes deep affection and loyalty. Against Nimreen’s wishes, Jonathan joins the paratroopers, with tragic consequences that cause Jonathan to spiral into what may or may not be insanity. Rothman-Zecher has an unusual way with words, giving lovely, fresh descriptions of desire, violence, and injustice.

As an American teenager, Jonathan's life is relatively uncomplicated. When he moves to Israel, however, his assumptions about his rights, his country, and his loyalties are turned upside down. Narrator Neil Shah describes Jonathan's turmoil in a somber voice. The steadiness of his pace strongly conveys the persistent violence and danger of living in a place where one's neighbor is determined to inhabit the same land. Shah plays up the grave themes at the heart of this painful exploration of one of our most long-standing modern conflicts. He's a good choice to portray the inner conflict Jonathan feels throughout his service in the Israeli Defense Force. Shah uses an array of inflections to capture the diversity of origins of Jewish people living in modern-day Israel: Russians, Americans, and people from the Middle East. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine