The long walk

In this long and fascinating novel, Ora, an early- middle-aged Israeli woman, walks for days through Galilee to escape the ‘Notifiers’, the officers she fears will come to her door to inform her of the death of Ofer, her soldier son, at the hands of Palestinians.

In this long and fascinating novel, Ora, an early- middle-aged Israeli woman, walks for days through Galilee to escape the ‘Notifiers’, the officers she fears will come to her door to inform her of the death of Ofer, her soldier son, at the hands of Palestinians.

David Grossman, one of Israel’s leading writers, relates in a note at the end of this novel that while he was writing it he discussed how it was progressing on the phone with his soldier-son Uri, who would ask him about the characters, ‘What did you do to them this week?’ ‘At the time, I had the feeling — or rather, a wish — that the book I was writing would protect him.’