{"id":8959,"date":"2014-11-07T00:17:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T08:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=8959"},"modified":"2014-11-05T17:01:21","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T01:01:21","slug":"zeruya-shalev-opens-jewish-book-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/11\/07\/zeruya-shalev-opens-jewish-book-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeruya Shalev opens Jewish Book Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zeruya Shalev (photo by Naomi Tokatly)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In The Remains of Love<\/em>, her latest novel to be translated into English, Zeruya Shalev once again explores (and crosses) intimate emotional boundaries. In this novel, however, she also overtly explores territory that she has actively resisted \u2013 Israel, where she was born and still lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my previous works, I avoided relating to the Israeli reality in a straightforward way,\u201d Shalev told the Independent<\/em> in an email interview. \u201cThe readers could have sensed it only indirectly \u2013 through the reckless pace, the intensity and perhaps even the pessimism. In this book, however, I felt an urge to open more windows to the Israeli reality \u2013 such as the history of the kibbutz and the burning issues of human rights. Each book has its own needs. Many issues that did not fit right in the previous books with the previous protagonists found themselves fitting perfectly into this one and its characters; this is because the Israeli reality affects them in a deeper and a more profound manner. And yet, still I am wrestling with the dominance of this reality, and try not to let it take over my books \u2013 it\u2019s enough that it controls my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shalev included a winking emoticon after this last comment, indicating that the remark should be taken with a grain of salt, or at least not as seriously as it reads. She has an engaging manner and a sense of humor, which comes through in her writing (amid the serious, emotional and provocative material) and especially in interviews (there are several available on YouTube). In addition to her talent as a writer \u2013 her novels are critically acclaimed and have garnered various awards \u2013 Shalev is a thoughtful, friendly and relaxed interviewee. She is a great choice to launch this year\u2019s Cherie Smith JCCGV Jewish Book Festival on Nov. 22.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>The Remains of Love<\/em> (Bloomsbury, 2013) centres around a dying woman, Hemda Horovitz, and her two adult children, who each have families, foibles and problems of their own. Her favorite, Avner, is a human rights lawyer; he is questioning everything about his life, whether he has made a dent in the inequality and injustice in the world, as well as his relationship with his wife and sons. Hemda\u2019s daughter, Dina, has devoted herself to her own daughter, Nitzan \u2013 giving her the love she never received from Hemda \u2013 but, like most teenagers, Nitzan is pulling away, so Dina looks to adopting a child to fill the void, even though her husband and daughter are against it.<\/p>\n

The focus on three protagonists required a change in style for Shalev.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my previous novels, I concentrated on one protagonist, and followed her stream of consciousness in the first person, which creates immediate intimacy,\u201d she explained. \u201cThe first person traps the readers in the inner world of the character, and even when he or she depicts other characters, they often seem like a projection of his or her own qualities. In this book, I wandered between three minds, three streams of consciousness, and the third person enables me much space and flexibility. At first, I was afraid that the third person might hurt the intimacy of the voice, but in retrospect it seems (or at least I hope) it didn\u2019t. The first person is completely monogamous, and the third person gives you more freedom, which I and my protagonists needed for this book.\u201d<\/p>\n

The literal translation of the novel\u2019s title is \u201cthe shards of life.\u201d In the French version \u2013 and perhaps in other languages, too \u2013 chayyim<\/em> is translated as \u201clife.\u201d However, Philip Simpson, who does a skilled job of translating the book\u2019s content, style and emotion, chooses the word \u201clove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe French title of the book is more loyal to the original title in Hebrew (The Remains of Life<\/em>) than the English one,\u201d acknowledged Shalev. \u201cYet my English publisher (in the U.K. and U.S.A.) turned to me and explained that this name does not possess enough beauty and lyric in English; I therefore agreed to change it. We tried together to find a new title that would fit the themes in the book, and also be of poetic value, and this is how we got to this name. It is indeed interesting to realize how easily one can substitute the word \u2018life\u2019 for the word \u2018love.\u2019 All three protagonists of this book are indeed longing for love, all are experiencing it as a drug-of-life, each in their own unique way. Life without love seems to them tasteless, and they are all willing to go a long way to find it; not only in the footsteps of romantic love, but the love for a child, a brother, for life itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shalev\u2019s Vancouver visit is part of a tour that begins in Houston and which also stops in Detroit, New York and Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the dozens of tours I have done in Europe, I haven\u2019t had many professional visits in the U.S. and Canada,\u201d she said. \u201cI am very much looking forward, especially to seeing Vancouver, which I heard is amazingly beautiful. As someone who has lived her entire life in a warm and desert land, I admire the cold weather, the mountains and lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully, she also likes rain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0***<\/p>\n

The Sol & Shirley Kort Author Series will feature Zeruya Shalev in conversation with the <\/em>Globe\u2019s Marsha Lederman on Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m., in the Rothstein Theatre. Tickets ($20) are available from ticketpeak.com\/jccgv<\/a> or the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, in person or by calling 604-257-5111. For the full Cherie Smith JCCGV Jewish Book Festival lineup, visit jewishbookfestival.ca<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Zeruya Shalev (photo by Naomi Tokatly) In The Remains of Love, her latest novel to be translated into English, Zeruya Shalev once again explores (and crosses) intimate emotional boundaries. In this novel, however, she also overtly explores territory that she has actively resisted \u2013 Israel, where she was born and still lives. \u201cIn my previous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[4330,2435],"class_list":["post-8959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-israel","tag-zeruya-shalev"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}