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textpublishing's review against another edition
‘A gently observed and deeply felt tale of three disparate characters living through unusual times.'
Pile by the Bed
‘Like the famous photograph of the string quartet amid the ruins of Sarajevo, his [Jerusalmy’s] book celebrates the persistence of art in times of chaos, and like another recent novella of the Middle East, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, it combines a jolting realism with the timeless quality of fables.’
Age
‘A bright, light-struck novel…Jerusalmy reveals all the strangeness of an emblematic place torn by political, artistic and religious currents. It is a crisp and oddly memorable book.’
Your Weekend
‘An elegant examination of the choices we make and the individual peace we seek…Evacuation is a short but meaningful voyage of discovery, an Israeli road trip packed with musings on war, love, death, and art.’
AU Review
Pile by the Bed
‘Like the famous photograph of the string quartet amid the ruins of Sarajevo, his [Jerusalmy’s] book celebrates the persistence of art in times of chaos, and like another recent novella of the Middle East, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, it combines a jolting realism with the timeless quality of fables.’
Age
‘A bright, light-struck novel…Jerusalmy reveals all the strangeness of an emblematic place torn by political, artistic and religious currents. It is a crisp and oddly memorable book.’
Your Weekend
‘An elegant examination of the choices we make and the individual peace we seek…Evacuation is a short but meaningful voyage of discovery, an Israeli road trip packed with musings on war, love, death, and art.’
AU Review
pagesintranslation's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
agameofbooks's review against another edition
2.0
ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The first thought that came to mind when I started reading Evacuation by Raphael Jerusalmy was that it was incredibly random. Who is the main character talking to? What and who is he talking about? Where and when does the story take place? It was quite confusing.
As the story continued I started figuring out more and more of the information. The main character, Naor, is travelling back to Tel Aviv with his mother and along the way he is telling her the story of the city’s evacuation (in 2010) and his decision to stay there with his girlfriend and grandfather. He explains what their life looked like then and talks about the movie they shot while waiting out the war. I did really have to do some background research to fully comprehend the story, which was disappointing.
In the end, this book really wasn’t my cup of tea. The writing style, and the set-up were just not something I enjoyed reading very much. I did find it very interesting to learn more about the situation. It’s a part of history that is very recent, but I still barely know anything about it.
The first thought that came to mind when I started reading Evacuation by Raphael Jerusalmy was that it was incredibly random. Who is the main character talking to? What and who is he talking about? Where and when does the story take place? It was quite confusing.
As the story continued I started figuring out more and more of the information. The main character, Naor, is travelling back to Tel Aviv with his mother and along the way he is telling her the story of the city’s evacuation (in 2010) and his decision to stay there with his girlfriend and grandfather. He explains what their life looked like then and talks about the movie they shot while waiting out the war. I did really have to do some background research to fully comprehend the story, which was disappointing.
In the end, this book really wasn’t my cup of tea. The writing style, and the set-up were just not something I enjoyed reading very much. I did find it very interesting to learn more about the situation. It’s a part of history that is very recent, but I still barely know anything about it.
booksrbrainfood's review against another edition
3.0
This novella really captured a lot in a shorter story. This was a compelling and sometimes difficult read about what a challenging choice it would be to choose to stay versus leave when your country is under attack. So powerful.
#Evacuation #NetGalley
#Evacuation #NetGalley
cindyp's review
4.0
Conversations in vehicles offer a particular intimacy: occupants have no choice but to be present. In Evacuation, by Raphaël Jerusalmy and translated from the French by Penny Hueston, a car's interior provides the opportunity for a young man to reveal his experiences during an evacuation of Tel Aviv, and for Jerusalmy, a former member of the Israeli military intelligence service, to show people upholding life and art in the midst of warfare.
The novella opens with Naor, an aspiring filmmaker, talking to his mother at the beginning of a drive. His voice serves as the primary narration throughout the book, as it's his story that unfolds. Typical small talk (put on your seatbelt, sorry about that turn) precedes his unexpected comment: "Don't be sad, Mum." With this remark the reader enters the car, too, and listens to Naor, as he drives, explain what happened during a recent military attack on Tel Aviv.
Naor and his girlfriend, Yaël, had planned to accompany Saba, his grandfather, on a bus to the countryside after the mandatory evacuation of the city. At the last minute, Saba gets off the bus and refuses to leave. Naor and Yaël follow him, initially to change his mind, but when he refuses, they decide, in an act of "dissidence," to defy the evacuation orders. Naor himself isn't really sure why the trio defied orders, and attempts to explain their motives to his mother. It's possible, Naor says, that Saba is "playing at being a rebel so people think he's younger." But his mother counters with, "Just like you're playing the rebel so you come across as more mature."
As for Yaël's motivation, she is the most enigmatic of the three. They were cut off from the world, and she "didn't want to surrender to the war." "We were going to behave as if there was no war. As if the war had never happened," Naor struggles to explain. He concludes, "Staying in deserted Tel Aviv was an act of resistance, of hanging on, standing firm." The trio scavenges for food and water, wanders the city reminiscing, and Naor even scripts a film for Yael and Saba to perform. "Have you never done that, pretended you're not part of what's happening around you?" he asks his mother. The reader, too, is lulled into pretending that there isn't a war going on. Thus, when the situation deteriorates, the devastation they experience is all the more shocking for the ordinary routines they'd established.
The politics of the Arab-Israeli war are barely mentioned in the novel. But readers see the street-level view of an aerial attack through Naor's eyes, in contrast to the typical distant perspective seen on news channels. There are people on those streets that are invisible in the larger theater of war. "War is for everyone, civilians as well as the military," Naor says. The trio's refusal to bow to the chaos of war is their ultimate act of resistance. Evacuation is no typical war novel: spare yet compelling, and extraordinarily moving in unexpected places, it challenges those who glance impassively at a televised war to step into the experience of those nearby.
-reviewed for Shelf Awareness 11-14-19
The novella opens with Naor, an aspiring filmmaker, talking to his mother at the beginning of a drive. His voice serves as the primary narration throughout the book, as it's his story that unfolds. Typical small talk (put on your seatbelt, sorry about that turn) precedes his unexpected comment: "Don't be sad, Mum." With this remark the reader enters the car, too, and listens to Naor, as he drives, explain what happened during a recent military attack on Tel Aviv.
Naor and his girlfriend, Yaël, had planned to accompany Saba, his grandfather, on a bus to the countryside after the mandatory evacuation of the city. At the last minute, Saba gets off the bus and refuses to leave. Naor and Yaël follow him, initially to change his mind, but when he refuses, they decide, in an act of "dissidence," to defy the evacuation orders. Naor himself isn't really sure why the trio defied orders, and attempts to explain their motives to his mother. It's possible, Naor says, that Saba is "playing at being a rebel so people think he's younger." But his mother counters with, "Just like you're playing the rebel so you come across as more mature."
As for Yaël's motivation, she is the most enigmatic of the three. They were cut off from the world, and she "didn't want to surrender to the war." "We were going to behave as if there was no war. As if the war had never happened," Naor struggles to explain. He concludes, "Staying in deserted Tel Aviv was an act of resistance, of hanging on, standing firm." The trio scavenges for food and water, wanders the city reminiscing, and Naor even scripts a film for Yael and Saba to perform. "Have you never done that, pretended you're not part of what's happening around you?" he asks his mother. The reader, too, is lulled into pretending that there isn't a war going on. Thus, when the situation deteriorates, the devastation they experience is all the more shocking for the ordinary routines they'd established.
The politics of the Arab-Israeli war are barely mentioned in the novel. But readers see the street-level view of an aerial attack through Naor's eyes, in contrast to the typical distant perspective seen on news channels. There are people on those streets that are invisible in the larger theater of war. "War is for everyone, civilians as well as the military," Naor says. The trio's refusal to bow to the chaos of war is their ultimate act of resistance. Evacuation is no typical war novel: spare yet compelling, and extraordinarily moving in unexpected places, it challenges those who glance impassively at a televised war to step into the experience of those nearby.
-reviewed for Shelf Awareness 11-14-19
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