I bet it doesn’t happen to David…Grossman

The young woman receives me with a friendly smile and tells me “we will be a small group tonight.” She adds “you know Bayern München are playing Manchester United tonight.” There are indeed very few in the hall in which I am to read from Die Schatten der Vergangenheit sind noch lang. Turns out that I am after all not Champions League material. The woman confesses that she is quite nervous, explaining, “authors are sometimes difficult.” I try to reassure her, promise that I will not be difficult, and hold back from pointing out that the football game is due to start later in the evening, only after my event is due to end.

It goes well and the questions show interest. The organisers say goodnight and do not offer to take me out for dinner. I don’t know anyone in this town and go back to my hotel. The restaurant is closed and I can only get snack food at a bar full of loud Bayern supporters. 

Israel’s Foremost Writer Has to Assure Israelis of His Allegiance

In his interview with the BBC, Israeli author David Grossman was asked whether he had ever considered leaving Israel. The question was asked in the context of Grossman’s book To the End of the Land. His response was: “I considered it and there are always temptations for it and I know when I will leave Israel – this is when Israel will stop being a democracy.”

Asked whether that was possible, Grossman said “It’s possible everywhere and as long as we are stuck in this war situation, it is a growing temptation for fundamentalism, fanaticism, and all the bad things that can bring about the stopping of democracy. But, I hope that I will stay in Israel because I deeply believe that for a Jewish person Israel is the most significant place to be and to implement our culture and our history and I think that part of the tragedy of the Jewish individual and the Jewish collective is that we have never really felt at home in the world and now we have Israel for 62 years and yet it is not the home it was meant to be. I want a home, I want Israel as a home, I want to have something, …a solidity of existence, we never felt the solidity of existence.”

It did not take long and Israel’s foremost writer had to defend himself on Israeli television. Grossman found himself explaining that he had been quoted out of context and that leaving Israel is anathema to everything he believes in.