Take a photo of a barcode or cover
acsaper 's review for:
Sadness Is a White Bird
by Moriel Rothman-Zecher
This book is one big beautiful gut punch.
Sadness is a White Bird presents the inner-turmoil of a young Israeli-born-American who returns to Israel with this family and faces an impending draft date to join the IDF. While he spends much of his time with his Israeli friends, dreaming of their platoons, assignments, desert goldened bodies, and replicating their grandfathers' heroic stories - he also begins to develop a new set of friends.
Jonathan's mother introduces him to her Palestinian friends, whose twin children Jonathan quickly befriends - and, falls in love with. Their friendship blossoms as they dive deeper into each others lives. At the same time, Jonathan struggles inside as he grapples with hearing the reality of the occupation from the oppressed - rather than the stories he has been fed from his Zionist grandfather and nation since his birth. At first he resists, wanting to believe in the goodness of the situation, wanting to believe that everyone experiences and honest and beautiful connection to Palestinians as he does.
And, of course, it takes tragedy for him to lean he is wrong. Jonathan does eventually join the IDF, believing that he will be able to maintain his morality, his perspective, his respect for all humanity. All of which are put to the test - along side the friendships that mean most to him.
Really crushingly beautiful, exciting, and a strong representation of the struggles that apparently the author faced as he refused to serve in the IDF and was imprisoned for doing so.
Highly recommended.
Sadness is a White Bird presents the inner-turmoil of a young Israeli-born-American who returns to Israel with this family and faces an impending draft date to join the IDF. While he spends much of his time with his Israeli friends, dreaming of their platoons, assignments, desert goldened bodies, and replicating their grandfathers' heroic stories - he also begins to develop a new set of friends.
Jonathan's mother introduces him to her Palestinian friends, whose twin children Jonathan quickly befriends - and, falls in love with. Their friendship blossoms as they dive deeper into each others lives. At the same time, Jonathan struggles inside as he grapples with hearing the reality of the occupation from the oppressed - rather than the stories he has been fed from his Zionist grandfather and nation since his birth. At first he resists, wanting to believe in the goodness of the situation, wanting to believe that everyone experiences and honest and beautiful connection to Palestinians as he does.
And, of course, it takes tragedy for him to lean he is wrong. Jonathan does eventually join the IDF, believing that he will be able to maintain his morality, his perspective, his respect for all humanity. All of which are put to the test - along side the friendships that mean most to him.
Really crushingly beautiful, exciting, and a strong representation of the struggles that apparently the author faced as he refused to serve in the IDF and was imprisoned for doing so.
Highly recommended.