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في أحد مطاعم تل أبيب، تفجر امرأة شابة نفسها وسط عشرات الزبائن. في المستشفى، يجري الدكتور أمين، الجراح الإسرائيلي من أصل عربي، العمليات الجراحية الواحدة تلو الأخرى للناجين من التفجير. في الليلة التي تلي المجزرة، يُستدعى بصورة طارئة للتعرف إلى الجثة الممزقة للمرأة الانتحارية. تتداعى الأرض تحت قدميه إذ يكتشف أنها زوجته.
كيف يسلِّم المرء بالمستحيل، ويستوعب ما لا يدركه عقل أو خيال، ويكتشف بأنه تقاسم لسنوات طويلة حياة وحميمية شخص يجهل عنه الأهم؟ للإجابة عن هذا السؤال، لا بد من الدخول إلى قلب الحقد والدم والنضال اليائس للشعب الفلسطيني...
كيف يسلِّم المرء بالمستحيل، ويستوعب ما لا يدركه عقل أو خيال، ويكتشف بأنه تقاسم لسنوات طويلة حياة وحميمية شخص يجهل عنه الأهم؟ للإجابة عن هذا السؤال، لا بد من الدخول إلى قلب الحقد والدم والنضال اليائس للشعب الفلسطيني...
296 pages
First published August 18, 2005
451 people are currently reading
7,397 people want to read
About the author
Yasmina Khadra
61books1,718followersYasmina Khadra (Arabic: , literally "green jasmine") is the pen name of the Algerian author Mohammed Moulessehoul.
Moulessehoul, an officer in the Algerian army, adopted a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship. Despite the publication of many successful novels in Algeria, Moulessehoul only revealed his true identity in 2001 after leaving the army and going into exile and seclusion in France. Anonymity was the only way for him to survive and avoid censorship during the Algerian Civil War.
In 2004, Newsweek acclaimed him as "one of the rare writers capable of giving a meaning to the violence in Algeria today."
His novel The Swallows of Kabul, set in Afghanistan under the Taliban, was shortlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. L'Attentat won the Prix des libraires in 2006, a prize chosen by about five thousand bookstores in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada.
Khadra pledges for becoming acquainted with the view of the others. In an interview with the German radio SWR1 in 2006, he said “The West interprets the world as he likes it. He develops certain theories that fit into its world outlook, but do not always represent the reality. Being a Muslim, I suggest a new perspective on Afghanistan, on the religious fanaticism and the, how I call it - religiopathy. My novel, the The Swallows of Kabul, gives the readers in the West a chance to understand the core of a problem that he usually only touches on the surface. Because the fanaticism is a threat for all, I contribute to the understanding of the causes and backgrounds. Perhaps then it will be possible to find a way to bring it under control.�
Moulessehoul, an officer in the Algerian army, adopted a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship. Despite the publication of many successful novels in Algeria, Moulessehoul only revealed his true identity in 2001 after leaving the army and going into exile and seclusion in France. Anonymity was the only way for him to survive and avoid censorship during the Algerian Civil War.
In 2004, Newsweek acclaimed him as "one of the rare writers capable of giving a meaning to the violence in Algeria today."
His novel The Swallows of Kabul, set in Afghanistan under the Taliban, was shortlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. L'Attentat won the Prix des libraires in 2006, a prize chosen by about five thousand bookstores in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada.
Khadra pledges for becoming acquainted with the view of the others. In an interview with the German radio SWR1 in 2006, he said “The West interprets the world as he likes it. He develops certain theories that fit into its world outlook, but do not always represent the reality. Being a Muslim, I suggest a new perspective on Afghanistan, on the religious fanaticism and the, how I call it - religiopathy. My novel, the The Swallows of Kabul, gives the readers in the West a chance to understand the core of a problem that he usually only touches on the surface. Because the fanaticism is a threat for all, I contribute to the understanding of the causes and backgrounds. Perhaps then it will be possible to find a way to bring it under control.�
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,346 reviews
August 18, 2024
“There’s no worse cataclysm than humiliation. It’s an evil beyond measure � �
Dr Amin Jaafari is a surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. He’s an Arab and he’s an Israeli citizen. He’s respected and admired by his community (that is to say, he thinks so) and he’s wildly in love with his wife. It is difficult to conceive of the shock, the fear, the dismay, and the confusion that he must have felt when a deadly bombing in a local café proves to have been instigated by his wife, ostensibly a radicalized Palestinian suicide bomber. In Jaafari’s mind, that was simply impossible and he sets out on a crusade to infiltrate the local Palestinian resistance to prove it.
The marketing blurb claims that Yasmina Khadra, the pen name of former Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul, has written an intense, emotional modern history
“devoid of political bias, hatred, and polemics� that “probes deep inside the Muslim world and gives readers a profound understanding of what seems impossible to understand.�
Well, reading through the filter of my admitted pro-Palestinian bias, I saw nothing that convinced me he succeeded in crafting a balanced novel. At an even deeper level, I read nothing that persuaded me that balance or sympathy for Israel and the Jews in this never-ending war was reasonable or warranted. Consider, for example, the question asked during Jaafari’s interrogation by a Jewish Israeli police detective. How could such a woman
“get up one day and load herself with explosives and go to a public place and do something that calls into question all the trust the state of Israel has placed in the Arabs it has welcome as citizens�?
Say whaaaat? How dare he? Arabs welcomed as citizens in a country created out of thin air after World War II by simply appropriating land that had been inhabited by the Arabs for thousands of years? Gosh, how generous of them! The hubris embodied in that attitude is overwhelming. The self-entitlement of Israel offered by the Torah and belonging to the Jews by right as the “Promised Land� is stifling. It is clear that the Holocaust taught the Jews nothing by way of generosity or compassion, both in Israel and in the diaspora scattered around the world.
All of that said and my personal political opinions notwithstanding, THE ATTACK is an exciting, compelling, gripping, and utterly heartbreaking page turner. Whether a reader whose personal feelings lean more favourably in the direction of Israel’s 21st century conduct with respect to the Gaza Strip would feel the same way is an open question. You’ll have to judge for yourself. THE ATTACK is a book that you NEED to read.
Paul Weiss
Dr Amin Jaafari is a surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. He’s an Arab and he’s an Israeli citizen. He’s respected and admired by his community (that is to say, he thinks so) and he’s wildly in love with his wife. It is difficult to conceive of the shock, the fear, the dismay, and the confusion that he must have felt when a deadly bombing in a local café proves to have been instigated by his wife, ostensibly a radicalized Palestinian suicide bomber. In Jaafari’s mind, that was simply impossible and he sets out on a crusade to infiltrate the local Palestinian resistance to prove it.
The marketing blurb claims that Yasmina Khadra, the pen name of former Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul, has written an intense, emotional modern history
“devoid of political bias, hatred, and polemics� that “probes deep inside the Muslim world and gives readers a profound understanding of what seems impossible to understand.�
Well, reading through the filter of my admitted pro-Palestinian bias, I saw nothing that convinced me he succeeded in crafting a balanced novel. At an even deeper level, I read nothing that persuaded me that balance or sympathy for Israel and the Jews in this never-ending war was reasonable or warranted. Consider, for example, the question asked during Jaafari’s interrogation by a Jewish Israeli police detective. How could such a woman
“get up one day and load herself with explosives and go to a public place and do something that calls into question all the trust the state of Israel has placed in the Arabs it has welcome as citizens�?
Say whaaaat? How dare he? Arabs welcomed as citizens in a country created out of thin air after World War II by simply appropriating land that had been inhabited by the Arabs for thousands of years? Gosh, how generous of them! The hubris embodied in that attitude is overwhelming. The self-entitlement of Israel offered by the Torah and belonging to the Jews by right as the “Promised Land� is stifling. It is clear that the Holocaust taught the Jews nothing by way of generosity or compassion, both in Israel and in the diaspora scattered around the world.
All of that said and my personal political opinions notwithstanding, THE ATTACK is an exciting, compelling, gripping, and utterly heartbreaking page turner. Whether a reader whose personal feelings lean more favourably in the direction of Israel’s 21st century conduct with respect to the Gaza Strip would feel the same way is an open question. You’ll have to judge for yourself. THE ATTACK is a book that you NEED to read.
Paul Weiss
January 27, 2014
I try to avoid going into bookshops because these days, what they actually offer, really, are hundreds and hundreds of books that I don't particularly want to read, of which I seem unable to resist taking at least two home with me, a bit like visiting the lost dogs' home saying we'll just take a look round.
This was a bit of a labradoodle.
It seemed like a good idea at the time: when going away on a holiday that requires some careful packing and weighing of suitcases rather than merely chucking everything you might possibly need into the car it's always a good idea to double up on books. Take something that both of us can enjoy. So I enter our local temple to literature, which is turning more and more into a temple to the DVD, to chocolate, calendars, moleskin notebooks, gingham lavender bags, greetings cards, wrapping paper, coffee mugs, dolls and soft toys, jigsaws, board games, so-called (non-book!) 'gifts' (stuff no-one ever knew they wanted, nor knows what to do with), magazines, pens, pencils, dog food. Dog food? Well, not so far, no, but package it right and it can only be a question of time. Anyway, I manage to find the stack of paperbacks that aren't all pink and girly or dark and grisly with the title embossed in silver, but there are still, ooh, at least twelve of them so I stand there humming an hah-ing for a bit. No helpful shop assistant within shouting distance. But my attention is drawn to an elderly lady and her daughter who are sifting through the same stacks. The elderly lady is a bit of a reader; each time her daughter suggests something she's already read it. Elderly lady is especially enthusiastic about this thrilling story set in Tel Aviv, irresistible she says, and you learn such a lot about the Palestinian conflict. Hmmm. An Algerian author who took a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship. I think I could sell that to The Man.
Well, let me warn you not to listen to elderly ladies in bookshops. I mean this was OK, it filled a couple of empty afternoon hours. Dr Jaafari has built for himself a safe little corner of the world where he feels that even as an Arab-Israeli he can get on with a useful life as a doctor, one that sees no political shades of skin colour on the people he treats, in a workplace that accepts him for his ability as a surgeon without regard for which side of the divide his loyalties lie. That secure world explodes, quite literally, in a horrific suicide bombing in which it would appear that the explosive device was strapped around the body of Dr Jaafari's wife.
Just like this reader, Dr Jaafari finds this hard to believe, and I don't know that either of us was much the wiser at the end. What does come galloping through is less the insight into the suicide bomber's mindset, but rather the attitude of a people under siege: if you aren't with us, then you are against us. Neutrality is not an option if you see war as a just war.
A labradoodle: a bit of a hybrid. A sort of thriller, why-dunnit, with a bit of contemporary political authenticity to give it an edge. Does the job, fills the time, but I couldn't quite see why it gave rise to such enthusiasm. Dr Jaafari remains distant, and his wife a complete enigma. The Man wasn't overly impressed either, by the way.
This was a bit of a labradoodle.
It seemed like a good idea at the time: when going away on a holiday that requires some careful packing and weighing of suitcases rather than merely chucking everything you might possibly need into the car it's always a good idea to double up on books. Take something that both of us can enjoy. So I enter our local temple to literature, which is turning more and more into a temple to the DVD, to chocolate, calendars, moleskin notebooks, gingham lavender bags, greetings cards, wrapping paper, coffee mugs, dolls and soft toys, jigsaws, board games, so-called (non-book!) 'gifts' (stuff no-one ever knew they wanted, nor knows what to do with), magazines, pens, pencils, dog food. Dog food? Well, not so far, no, but package it right and it can only be a question of time. Anyway, I manage to find the stack of paperbacks that aren't all pink and girly or dark and grisly with the title embossed in silver, but there are still, ooh, at least twelve of them so I stand there humming an hah-ing for a bit. No helpful shop assistant within shouting distance. But my attention is drawn to an elderly lady and her daughter who are sifting through the same stacks. The elderly lady is a bit of a reader; each time her daughter suggests something she's already read it. Elderly lady is especially enthusiastic about this thrilling story set in Tel Aviv, irresistible she says, and you learn such a lot about the Palestinian conflict. Hmmm. An Algerian author who took a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship. I think I could sell that to The Man.
Well, let me warn you not to listen to elderly ladies in bookshops. I mean this was OK, it filled a couple of empty afternoon hours. Dr Jaafari has built for himself a safe little corner of the world where he feels that even as an Arab-Israeli he can get on with a useful life as a doctor, one that sees no political shades of skin colour on the people he treats, in a workplace that accepts him for his ability as a surgeon without regard for which side of the divide his loyalties lie. That secure world explodes, quite literally, in a horrific suicide bombing in which it would appear that the explosive device was strapped around the body of Dr Jaafari's wife.
Just like this reader, Dr Jaafari finds this hard to believe, and I don't know that either of us was much the wiser at the end. What does come galloping through is less the insight into the suicide bomber's mindset, but rather the attitude of a people under siege: if you aren't with us, then you are against us. Neutrality is not an option if you see war as a just war.
A labradoodle: a bit of a hybrid. A sort of thriller, why-dunnit, with a bit of contemporary political authenticity to give it an edge. Does the job, fills the time, but I couldn't quite see why it gave rise to such enthusiasm. Dr Jaafari remains distant, and his wife a complete enigma. The Man wasn't overly impressed either, by the way.
September 4, 2024
what if it were you
🇩🇿 Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym for Mohammed Moulessehoul, a former Algerian army officer who began writing under his wife's name to sidestep military censors. He now lives in France 🇫🇷
🐪 Amir’s family is Bedouin. Through dint of hard work and good fortune he became a surgeon and was offered the possibility of becoming a naturalized Israeli citizen which he accepted. He married a bright, attractive, empathetic Arab woman. Living in an upscale neighborhood in Tel Aviv, everything in his life appeared to be falling into place.
Then. There is an explosion at a fast food restaurant. A suicide bomber. As a surgeon, he deals with many of the worst injuries, working until he can barely stand, to save as many lives as possible. The blast is difficult enough to deal with, especially since the restaurant was filled with schoolchildren celebrating a birthday. But there is worse to come. The police tell him his beautiful, pacifist wife was the suicide bomber.
He refuses to believe it. She could not have done it. She who would not even use a swatter to kill a fly. But a letter arrives in the mail. She posted it a day before the attack. She is going to do it. “Don’t hate me,� she pleads.
Amir’s life and world come crashing down. Insane with grief and disbelief, he hurls himself into the back streets of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jenin, determined to find out who recruited her and turned her from a dove into a hawk. He is beaten and brutalized but refuses to give up - someone must answer to him for poisoning his wife’s peaceful heart and mind. The day comes when he is permitted to meet with one of the leaders of the intifada.
He tells Amir he and many others tried to persuade her not to be a suicide bomber. That there were better ways for her to serve the cause for a Palestinian homeland. But she was determined. And Amir is left with the image of his peaceful wife standing in a crowded restaurant, one teeming with young schoolchildren, and still choosing to trigger the bomb wrapped around her body, taking 17 other lives with her.
It is impossible for him to grasp. He talks with his many Israeli friends. He reconnects with his Arab family. The upscale Jewish neighborhood turns against him because of his wife, identified in the news as the killer, and beats him. His Arab world turns against him and beats him because they hold her up as a martyr and heroine and he does not. The Muslim world he stopped embracing many years before beats him and pushes him away.
Only his best Israeli friends remain close. Only his Arab family remains close. He sees the conflict he chose to ignore from all sides. Yet he still cannot understand why his wife chose to kill for the cause when the only cause he cares about is to be a surgeon and heal as many men, women, and children as he can. He thought they were on the same page. She hid from him her change of heart. For months. And he cannot understand, he can never understand, why she chose the route she did to try and make a difference for a Palestinian homeland. Why didn’t she choose to train as a physician or nurse and become a healer of Jewish and Palestinian lives as he did?
Think of this. Think of your partner. Your he or she or they. You enjoy life together. Love the seashore. Love the sunsets over the ocean. Love to make love. One day at work or school, you, like others, are horrified to hear that a gunman has attacked crowds in a shopping mall with an AK 47. Dozens are dead. Slaughtered without mercy. Many are children. Shot at point blank range. The shooter then shot themself. You grieve and shake your head and cannot understand.
Then when you get back to your house or apartment the police are waiting for you. The lone wolf killer was your partner, your lover. It’s impossible. Impossible. Then you are shown the evidence, proof you cannot dismiss. But no. No. Your lover could not do this. Your lover was not just your lover. Your lover loved children and people. But they had pinned a note to their body explaining why they felt they had to do this and for what cause. And you are left with the destruction they left in their wake.
I know I went through this mind game and it was impossible for me not to feel shredded. It would make no sense. It would hurt so much.
Make no mistake. The author makes you feel the pain on all sides. Amir continues to seek for answers to the very end of the book. Imagine my surprise when I looked up other titles by the same author only to discover I had read another book they’d written, The Dictator’s Last Night, a hard-hitting novel about Gaddafi. That same crisp, fast-paced writing skill pervades The Attack.
This novel will never leave me. It will always remain with me.
🇩🇿 Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym for Mohammed Moulessehoul, a former Algerian army officer who began writing under his wife's name to sidestep military censors. He now lives in France 🇫🇷
🐪 Amir’s family is Bedouin. Through dint of hard work and good fortune he became a surgeon and was offered the possibility of becoming a naturalized Israeli citizen which he accepted. He married a bright, attractive, empathetic Arab woman. Living in an upscale neighborhood in Tel Aviv, everything in his life appeared to be falling into place.
Then. There is an explosion at a fast food restaurant. A suicide bomber. As a surgeon, he deals with many of the worst injuries, working until he can barely stand, to save as many lives as possible. The blast is difficult enough to deal with, especially since the restaurant was filled with schoolchildren celebrating a birthday. But there is worse to come. The police tell him his beautiful, pacifist wife was the suicide bomber.
He refuses to believe it. She could not have done it. She who would not even use a swatter to kill a fly. But a letter arrives in the mail. She posted it a day before the attack. She is going to do it. “Don’t hate me,� she pleads.
Amir’s life and world come crashing down. Insane with grief and disbelief, he hurls himself into the back streets of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jenin, determined to find out who recruited her and turned her from a dove into a hawk. He is beaten and brutalized but refuses to give up - someone must answer to him for poisoning his wife’s peaceful heart and mind. The day comes when he is permitted to meet with one of the leaders of the intifada.
He tells Amir he and many others tried to persuade her not to be a suicide bomber. That there were better ways for her to serve the cause for a Palestinian homeland. But she was determined. And Amir is left with the image of his peaceful wife standing in a crowded restaurant, one teeming with young schoolchildren, and still choosing to trigger the bomb wrapped around her body, taking 17 other lives with her.
It is impossible for him to grasp. He talks with his many Israeli friends. He reconnects with his Arab family. The upscale Jewish neighborhood turns against him because of his wife, identified in the news as the killer, and beats him. His Arab world turns against him and beats him because they hold her up as a martyr and heroine and he does not. The Muslim world he stopped embracing many years before beats him and pushes him away.
Only his best Israeli friends remain close. Only his Arab family remains close. He sees the conflict he chose to ignore from all sides. Yet he still cannot understand why his wife chose to kill for the cause when the only cause he cares about is to be a surgeon and heal as many men, women, and children as he can. He thought they were on the same page. She hid from him her change of heart. For months. And he cannot understand, he can never understand, why she chose the route she did to try and make a difference for a Palestinian homeland. Why didn’t she choose to train as a physician or nurse and become a healer of Jewish and Palestinian lives as he did?
Think of this. Think of your partner. Your he or she or they. You enjoy life together. Love the seashore. Love the sunsets over the ocean. Love to make love. One day at work or school, you, like others, are horrified to hear that a gunman has attacked crowds in a shopping mall with an AK 47. Dozens are dead. Slaughtered without mercy. Many are children. Shot at point blank range. The shooter then shot themself. You grieve and shake your head and cannot understand.
Then when you get back to your house or apartment the police are waiting for you. The lone wolf killer was your partner, your lover. It’s impossible. Impossible. Then you are shown the evidence, proof you cannot dismiss. But no. No. Your lover could not do this. Your lover was not just your lover. Your lover loved children and people. But they had pinned a note to their body explaining why they felt they had to do this and for what cause. And you are left with the destruction they left in their wake.
I know I went through this mind game and it was impossible for me not to feel shredded. It would make no sense. It would hurt so much.
Make no mistake. The author makes you feel the pain on all sides. Amir continues to seek for answers to the very end of the book. Imagine my surprise when I looked up other titles by the same author only to discover I had read another book they’d written, The Dictator’s Last Night, a hard-hitting novel about Gaddafi. That same crisp, fast-paced writing skill pervades The Attack.
This novel will never leave me. It will always remain with me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2023
4.5 stars
According to the author bio in my edition, Yasmina Khadra is one of the most popular writers in the Arab world.
I can believe it.
"The Attack" (original fr: L'attentat, dt: Die Attentäterin) is a very Arab novel and quite a good one.
Not only is the story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a uniquely middle Eastern story, but the detailed examination of the interior conflicts of a "mixed identity" (being Arab with Israeli citizenship) mirrors the political conflict on a very personal level, giving the novel a depth it otherwise wouldn't have had.
Some reviewers have mentioned not being able to understand the viewpoint of the narrator Amin, an non-religious Arab surgeon whose wife - unbeknownst to him - was recruited as a suicide bomber.
He is enraged, not about his wife dying as much as that fact that she publically 'betrayed' him. How someone else, or something else, was more important to her than he was. How she was not as unerringly loyal to him as he thought. How she became involved in things without his knowledge or permission.
And now everyone in the country knows his shame.
Amin is only understandable when you know how much of a role humiliation plays in Arabic culture and how highly sensitive the men are to even the slightest indication of disrespect.
In a detective novel like fashion, Amin sets out to find out why and how his wife was turned. Where did she go when he was at work? Who did she meet?
The result is a gripping journey through Israeli and Palestinian culture & society.
Normally emotions and emotional content is not of high importance to me, but the emotions Amin displays are some of the most real I've ever read. In comparison, the emotions of other fictional characters seem artificial and constructed. Amin's pain is REAL. And real in a way that only someone speaking from the soul of a culture can be real. Perhaps real in only the way another Arab man could portray them (Yes, "Yasmina" is a retired Algerian solider).
In some places the story gets rather too introspective and Amin goes into detail where he doesn't really need to, but that's a minor thing.
The novel doesn't pretend to explain why some chose to become martyrs. But it does an excellent job of showing the racism, the pressures, the injustice and the effects the politicisation of religion have on all those who live in that area. Even those who believe themselves not to be involved.
Especially those who believe themselves not to be involved.
L'attentat is a hugely courageous novel that dares to point to a third option in the conflict of culture and identity that has cost so many lives. Not being an Arab or a Jew is what is important, but being a human being whose highest loyalty is to other human beings, no matter who they are or what they believe.
According to the author bio in my edition, Yasmina Khadra is one of the most popular writers in the Arab world.
I can believe it.
"The Attack" (original fr: L'attentat, dt: Die Attentäterin) is a very Arab novel and quite a good one.
Not only is the story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a uniquely middle Eastern story, but the detailed examination of the interior conflicts of a "mixed identity" (being Arab with Israeli citizenship) mirrors the political conflict on a very personal level, giving the novel a depth it otherwise wouldn't have had.
Some reviewers have mentioned not being able to understand the viewpoint of the narrator Amin, an non-religious Arab surgeon whose wife - unbeknownst to him - was recruited as a suicide bomber.
He is enraged, not about his wife dying as much as that fact that she publically 'betrayed' him. How someone else, or something else, was more important to her than he was. How she was not as unerringly loyal to him as he thought. How she became involved in things without his knowledge or permission.
And now everyone in the country knows his shame.
Amin is only understandable when you know how much of a role humiliation plays in Arabic culture and how highly sensitive the men are to even the slightest indication of disrespect.
In a detective novel like fashion, Amin sets out to find out why and how his wife was turned. Where did she go when he was at work? Who did she meet?
The result is a gripping journey through Israeli and Palestinian culture & society.
Normally emotions and emotional content is not of high importance to me, but the emotions Amin displays are some of the most real I've ever read. In comparison, the emotions of other fictional characters seem artificial and constructed. Amin's pain is REAL. And real in a way that only someone speaking from the soul of a culture can be real. Perhaps real in only the way another Arab man could portray them (Yes, "Yasmina" is a retired Algerian solider).
In some places the story gets rather too introspective and Amin goes into detail where he doesn't really need to, but that's a minor thing.
The novel doesn't pretend to explain why some chose to become martyrs. But it does an excellent job of showing the racism, the pressures, the injustice and the effects the politicisation of religion have on all those who live in that area. Even those who believe themselves not to be involved.
Especially those who believe themselves not to be involved.
L'attentat is a hugely courageous novel that dares to point to a third option in the conflict of culture and identity that has cost so many lives. Not being an Arab or a Jew is what is important, but being a human being whose highest loyalty is to other human beings, no matter who they are or what they believe.
December 31, 2011
مالذي يسبب الصدمة أكثر من أن تعيش مع إنسان لمدة عشر سنوات في بيت واحد وتشعر إنك تعرفه جيدا وتعرف كل تفاصيله لتصحو يوما على حقيقة إن هذا الإنسان كان شخصا آخر لاتعرفه وليس كما تهيأ لك هذه الصدمة قد تشلّ كل أحاسيسك وتبدل واقعك إلى النقيض خاصة إن كانت تلك العلاقة هي علاقة حب وزواج
لم يكن بطل الرواية قادرا على إستيعاب أن زوجته الجميلة قد تفجر نفسها كإنتحارية فتقضي ليس فقط على نفسها بل على حياتهما معا وكل مخططاتهم المستقبلية ، الأمر يثير الخوف والحزن يثير الشك ويفقد الإيمان
بطل الرواية جراح فلسطيني حاصل على الجنسية الإسرائيلية يعيش في تل أبيب يرفض العنف ويعتبر أن مهنته هي معالجة المريض مهما كان دينه أو عرقه
حين ذكرت أن خضرا مغامرا فلأنه تناول هذا الموضوع الخطير والحساس التعايش بين اليهود والفلسطينيون وهل ممكن أن يتخلى الفلسطيني عن وطنيته في مقابل العيش بسلام وأن يحقق أحلامه كإنسان
خضرا كتب بإنسانية رافضا العنف على لسان بطله أمين والذي قد يدمر حياة عائلة بل ووقد يصل إلى أكثر من ذلك غير أن هذه الأحلام تكسرت على صخرة الواقع
يسعدني أن تعرفت على هذا الكاتب وأن تقرأ له متأخرا خيرمن أن لا تفعل
لم يكن بطل الرواية قادرا على إستيعاب أن زوجته الجميلة قد تفجر نفسها كإنتحارية فتقضي ليس فقط على نفسها بل على حياتهما معا وكل مخططاتهم المستقبلية ، الأمر يثير الخوف والحزن يثير الشك ويفقد الإيمان
بطل الرواية جراح فلسطيني حاصل على الجنسية الإسرائيلية يعيش في تل أبيب يرفض العنف ويعتبر أن مهنته هي معالجة المريض مهما كان دينه أو عرقه
حين ذكرت أن خضرا مغامرا فلأنه تناول هذا الموضوع الخطير والحساس التعايش بين اليهود والفلسطينيون وهل ممكن أن يتخلى الفلسطيني عن وطنيته في مقابل العيش بسلام وأن يحقق أحلامه كإنسان
خضرا كتب بإنسانية رافضا العنف على لسان بطله أمين والذي قد يدمر حياة عائلة بل ووقد يصل إلى أكثر من ذلك غير أن هذه الأحلام تكسرت على صخرة الواقع
يسعدني أن تعرفت على هذا الكاتب وأن تقرأ له متأخرا خيرمن أن لا تفعل
November 21, 2019
I've always wondered (despite all the articles on what turns humans into suicide bombers) that HOW can it be what they feel think see believe how they find the guts to do something so horrible with a clean conscience. its not an easy task to find out let alone explain to the world and yet Khadra tries to do it all the same with a very humane perspective of the people around those suicide bombers, mostly steering clear of the dirty politics involved. The wife/bomber remains an enigma yet its a precise account of the chain of events induced by cause and effect. This book is a heart wrenching account of two sides of the same story that is Israel versus Palestine💔
"It’s a duel without pity and without rules, where hesitations are fatal and mistakes irreparable, where the end generates its own means, and where salvation is not much thought of, having been largely supplanted by the exaltations of revenge and spectacular death. Now, I’ve always felt a holy terror for tanks and bombs, and I’ve never seen anything in them but the most complete expression of the worst traits of humankind."
"It’s a duel without pity and without rules, where hesitations are fatal and mistakes irreparable, where the end generates its own means, and where salvation is not much thought of, having been largely supplanted by the exaltations of revenge and spectacular death. Now, I’ve always felt a holy terror for tanks and bombs, and I’ve never seen anything in them but the most complete expression of the worst traits of humankind."
October 28, 2022
رواية جيدة، لكن لي عليها جملة من المآخذ، رغم أن الكاتب أبدى معرفة بالوضع الفلسطيني لكنه أخفق في مواضع عدة:
أولاً: هناك بعض التفاصيل في طبيعة الواقع الفلسطيني التي يجب على الكاتب عن الوضع الفلسطيني وخصوصيته أن يكون ملماً بها حتى لا يقع في الخطأ ، فمثلاً سيارة عادل التي أخدت سارة من تل أبيب، ثم رآها في بيت لحم. كان هنا خلل في هذه الجزئية . حيث أن منطقة بيت لحم تصنف أنها منطقة في الضفة الغربية ، والسيارات التي تمشي في شوارع الضفة الغربية غير مسموح لها السير على شوارع تل أبيب، لأنها سيارات بلوحة ورقم فلسطيني. السيارات في شوارع المناطق المحتلة لون لوحتها أصفر لها الحرية أن تسير في شوارع المناطق المحتلة والضفة الغربية ، على عكس السيارات بلوحة فلسطينية. وهو لم ينوّه أن السيارة التي رآها في بيت لحم وتل أبيب بلوحة صفراء أم خضراء " ضفة غربية"، وهذا يعد إخفاقاً لأنه يعد تفصيلاً مهماً وعليه تحدد حرية التحرك بين المناطق المحتلة ومناطق الضفة الغربية وهذا أمر يدركه الفلسطيني جيداً وعليه تتحدد أمور كثيرة.
ثانيا": فكرة أن خليل كان عنده حرية ليدخل مرات عدة لتل أبيب والفترة التي كتب عنها العمل لم يكن منطقياً، خاصة بعد بناء جدار الفصل العنصري، فعمليات التسلل من الضفة الغربية للداخل المحتل محدودة جدا، وهذا لم يراعيه الكاتب أيضاً ففكرة السهولة والحرية التي قدم بها هذه الجزئية بحرية تنقل خليل قُدمت بطريقة هوليوودية ساذجة جداً.
ثالثا": أنا أتفهم توجه أمين أنه طبيب وضد عمليات التفجير وأنه عاش كمواطن إسرائيلي ، وطبعا صراع الهوية ليس سهلاً. فكيان الاحتلال يدعي الديموقراطية لكنه يعامل فلسطينيي الداخل المحتل كطبقة ثانية وأدنى. لكن الكاتب تبنى وجهة نظر الاحتلال في العمليات الاستشهادية والتي تمثلت بشخصية أمين التي نددت بذلك.
طوال الفترة التي كان يتحدث بها عن سلوك سهام، كان يضرب على الوتر الإنساني أنها فجرت نفسها بين مجموعة من التلاميذ. أنا شخصيا ضد عمليات التفجير لكني شعرت أن الكاتب يميل جداً للرواية الإسرائيلية في هذا الموضوع، وحتى في الوقت الذي ذهب فيه أمين لمدينة جنين ورأى عمليات الحصار وهدم بيت العائلة كنوع من العقاب الجماعي الذي تنتهجه سياسة الاحتلال، لم أشعر أن الكاتب أبرز كثيراً الصورة والجانب الفلسطيني في الموضوع والتي من خلال عمليات الاحتلال قُتل أطفال كثر. هذا لم يبرزه الكاتب. لم يبرز من الواقع الفلسطيني سوى جماعات مسلحة تقوم بعمليات تفجير. وهذا برأيي تحيز قميء وغير منصف.
رابعًا: وصف كل جماعات النضال أن لها جذوراً إسلامية أصولية تقوم بغسل أدمغة النساء والأطفال وتسوقهم لتفجير أنفسهم. قد يكون ذلك صحيحاً لدى بعض الجماعات لكن ليس جمعيها. فجاء تعميمه خاطىء ومجحف بحق جماعات المقاومة الأخرى التي لها قضية، والتي هي قضية وجود!
أولاً: هناك بعض التفاصيل في طبيعة الواقع الفلسطيني التي يجب على الكاتب عن الوضع الفلسطيني وخصوصيته أن يكون ملماً بها حتى لا يقع في الخطأ ، فمثلاً سيارة عادل التي أخدت سارة من تل أبيب، ثم رآها في بيت لحم. كان هنا خلل في هذه الجزئية . حيث أن منطقة بيت لحم تصنف أنها منطقة في الضفة الغربية ، والسيارات التي تمشي في شوارع الضفة الغربية غير مسموح لها السير على شوارع تل أبيب، لأنها سيارات بلوحة ورقم فلسطيني. السيارات في شوارع المناطق المحتلة لون لوحتها أصفر لها الحرية أن تسير في شوارع المناطق المحتلة والضفة الغربية ، على عكس السيارات بلوحة فلسطينية. وهو لم ينوّه أن السيارة التي رآها في بيت لحم وتل أبيب بلوحة صفراء أم خضراء " ضفة غربية"، وهذا يعد إخفاقاً لأنه يعد تفصيلاً مهماً وعليه تحدد حرية التحرك بين المناطق المحتلة ومناطق الضفة الغربية وهذا أمر يدركه الفلسطيني جيداً وعليه تتحدد أمور كثيرة.
ثانيا": فكرة أن خليل كان عنده حرية ليدخل مرات عدة لتل أبيب والفترة التي كتب عنها العمل لم يكن منطقياً، خاصة بعد بناء جدار الفصل العنصري، فعمليات التسلل من الضفة الغربية للداخل المحتل محدودة جدا، وهذا لم يراعيه الكاتب أيضاً ففكرة السهولة والحرية التي قدم بها هذه الجزئية بحرية تنقل خليل قُدمت بطريقة هوليوودية ساذجة جداً.
ثالثا": أنا أتفهم توجه أمين أنه طبيب وضد عمليات التفجير وأنه عاش كمواطن إسرائيلي ، وطبعا صراع الهوية ليس سهلاً. فكيان الاحتلال يدعي الديموقراطية لكنه يعامل فلسطينيي الداخل المحتل كطبقة ثانية وأدنى. لكن الكاتب تبنى وجهة نظر الاحتلال في العمليات الاستشهادية والتي تمثلت بشخصية أمين التي نددت بذلك.
طوال الفترة التي كان يتحدث بها عن سلوك سهام، كان يضرب على الوتر الإنساني أنها فجرت نفسها بين مجموعة من التلاميذ. أنا شخصيا ضد عمليات التفجير لكني شعرت أن الكاتب يميل جداً للرواية الإسرائيلية في هذا الموضوع، وحتى في الوقت الذي ذهب فيه أمين لمدينة جنين ورأى عمليات الحصار وهدم بيت العائلة كنوع من العقاب الجماعي الذي تنتهجه سياسة الاحتلال، لم أشعر أن الكاتب أبرز كثيراً الصورة والجانب الفلسطيني في الموضوع والتي من خلال عمليات الاحتلال قُتل أطفال كثر. هذا لم يبرزه الكاتب. لم يبرز من الواقع الفلسطيني سوى جماعات مسلحة تقوم بعمليات تفجير. وهذا برأيي تحيز قميء وغير منصف.
رابعًا: وصف كل جماعات النضال أن لها جذوراً إسلامية أصولية تقوم بغسل أدمغة النساء والأطفال وتسوقهم لتفجير أنفسهم. قد يكون ذلك صحيحاً لدى بعض الجماعات لكن ليس جمعيها. فجاء تعميمه خاطىء ومجحف بحق جماعات المقاومة الأخرى التي لها قضية، والتي هي قضية وجود!
July 2, 2020
اقتباسات من الرواية
“إ� من قال لك إن الرجل لا يبكي، يجهلُ ما هي الرجولة، فلا تخجل من البكاء يا بني، لأن الدموع أرقى ما نملك�.
“م� يقول لك إن ثمة سيمفونية أعظم من الروح التي تحركك يكذب عليك، يريد النيل من أجمل ما عندك، فرصة الاستفادة من كل لحظة في حياتك. إذا انطلقت من المبدأ الذي مفاده أن عدوك اللدود هو ذاك الذي يحاول زرع الحقد في قلبك، تكون قد عرفت نصف السعادة. أما الباقي فما عليك سوى أن تمد يدك لقطفه. وتذكر جيدًا أن لا شيء، لا شيء على الإطلاق يفوق الحياة� وحياتك لا تفوق حياة الآخرين�.
“حيا� البشر أهم بكثير من التضحية، فأعظم القضايا وأكثرها عدلاً ونبلاً على الأرض هي حق الحياة�.
“وم� قيمة الدار حين تفقد الوطن�.
“عندم� يقبل المرء أن يحمل السلاح، عليه أن يقبل أن يحذو الآخرين حذوه. لكل الحق في نصيبه من المجد. لا يختار المرء مصيره، ولكنه يختار نهايته�.
“بوسعه� أن يحرموك من كل شي؛ أملاكك، أجمل سنوات عمرك، كل أفراحك، ومجمل إنجازاتك، حتى آخر قميص عندك - ولكنك ستحتفظ دائمًا بأحلامك لإعادة إبداع العالم الذي صادروه منك�.
ياسمينة خضرا،
“إ� من قال لك إن الرجل لا يبكي، يجهلُ ما هي الرجولة، فلا تخجل من البكاء يا بني، لأن الدموع أرقى ما نملك�.
“م� يقول لك إن ثمة سيمفونية أعظم من الروح التي تحركك يكذب عليك، يريد النيل من أجمل ما عندك، فرصة الاستفادة من كل لحظة في حياتك. إذا انطلقت من المبدأ الذي مفاده أن عدوك اللدود هو ذاك الذي يحاول زرع الحقد في قلبك، تكون قد عرفت نصف السعادة. أما الباقي فما عليك سوى أن تمد يدك لقطفه. وتذكر جيدًا أن لا شيء، لا شيء على الإطلاق يفوق الحياة� وحياتك لا تفوق حياة الآخرين�.
“حيا� البشر أهم بكثير من التضحية، فأعظم القضايا وأكثرها عدلاً ونبلاً على الأرض هي حق الحياة�.
“وم� قيمة الدار حين تفقد الوطن�.
“عندم� يقبل المرء أن يحمل السلاح، عليه أن يقبل أن يحذو الآخرين حذوه. لكل الحق في نصيبه من المجد. لا يختار المرء مصيره، ولكنه يختار نهايته�.
“بوسعه� أن يحرموك من كل شي؛ أملاكك، أجمل سنوات عمرك، كل أفراحك، ومجمل إنجازاتك، حتى آخر قميص عندك - ولكنك ستحتفظ دائمًا بأحلامك لإعادة إبداع العالم الذي صادروه منك�.
ياسمينة خضرا،
August 4, 2022
Amin is comfortable as an Arab-Israeli citizen. He is a well respected surgeon and sees himself as successfully integrated as is possible whatever that really might mean. He has no interest in the political troubles that surround him. Taking care of his patients and enjoying his life with his wife are the only things of importance for him. His world is turned upside down, however, when is wife, also apparently happily integrated, is suspected of being the suicide bomber responsible for the many dead and injured in a local café. So much potential here, but I found it to be quite a dull read that made little of that potential. It fails on so many levels for me, especially regarding his understanding of his own personal relationship, but it is still worth reading.
August 20, 2018
«Che m’importa dei molti vostri sacrifici?, dice il Signore. Io li odio.»
(Isaia 1,11)
Stando alla maggior parte dei commenti negativi che ho letto su questo breve romanzo, sembra che uno dei problemi principali sia la scrittura, che in effetti non è il suo punto di forza, anche se, più che sciatta, la definirei semplice, priva di una qualsiasi cifra stilistica, viziata, forse, anche da alcune ingenuità del traduttore.
Una scrittura semplice, che però “squaderna le disavventure�, in cui il protagonista, i cui sogni vengono “conculcati� dalla realtà dei fatti, si reca al “dispensario� e il cui pseudocoraggio è una “diversione� e una “furtiva reptazione di un brivido [gli scende] fino al petto�, che mi fa pensare che non tutte le colpe debbano essere attribuite all’autore, che peraltro scrive in francese (questo per dire che dovrebbe essere meno difficile per una casa editrice trovare un traduttore di buon livello) a partire dalla scelta del titolo - ’aٳٱԳٲٰ - che è indubbiamente più suggestivo e vendibile che ’AٳٱԳٲٴ.
Ma quella raccontata da Yasmina Chandra - pseudonimo di Mohammed Moulessehoul, scrittore algerino, ufficiale dell’esercito superiore del suo paese, che dal 1999, dopo essere stato costretto a utilizzare il nome della moglie, ha svelato la propria identità ed eletto la Francia a propria nazione di adozione - è una storia che cattura e annichilisce, talmente inconcepibile per noi occidentali (e impossibile da riuscire ad accettare), che ci lasciamo trascinare nell’errare del dottor Amin Jaafari per tutti i gironi del suo inferno privato.
Lo stimato chirurgo dottor Amin Jaafari, israeliano naturalizzato, che vive in un esclusivo quartiere ebraico e opera in un ospedale ebraico; l’integrato dottor Amin Jaafari, che con la sua bella e innamorata moglie, conduce una vita dedita alla sua professione coronata di successi, privilegi e amicizie importanti a Tel Aviv; il dottor Amin Jaafari, che dopo una giornata trascorsa in sala operatoria per cercare di salvare il salvabile dopo un’attentato suicida che ha riempito di morti e corpi martoriati l’ospedale in cui lavora, svegliato nel cuore della notte da una telefonata, scopre che l’attentatore suicida, il kamikaze, l’uomo che si era fatto esplodere in quel ristorante pieno di gente seminando morte e terrore, era invece sua moglie: la dolce e silenziosa e idealizzata Sihem.
“Chi sogna troppo dimentica di vivere�, gli viene rimproverato, Vivevate sotto lo stesso tetto, godevate degli stessi privilegi, ma non guardavate nella stessa direzione.
È l’inizio di un dramma devastante, che attraversa le fasi dello choc e della negazione, quella dell’abbandono di se stesso e della rabbia per quel senso di solitudine straziante e viscerale che lo precipita nell’abisso.
Chi era Sihem e com’� possibile che una donna mai stata religiosa praticante, benestante e apparentemente soddisfatta e lontana dalla realtà politica dei Territori palestinesi, com’� possibile che quella donna, al suo fianco da quindici anni, lo abbia “tradito� in quel modo, abbandonandolo, escludendolo, fino a scegliere di infliggere a se stessa, a lui e al loro matrimonio, quell’epilogo?
E una volta accettata la colpevolezza di Sihem, com’� possibile che non ci siano stati dei messaggi da cogliere, che lei non abbia mai cercato di fargli capire quanto stava accadendo, che non abbia cercato, nemmeno per un momento, di mandargli un segnale?
Il baratro, il precipizio, l’inferno di Amin Jaafari è fatto della ricerca di quel segnale, del tentativo di trovare, attraverso l’esile filo che da Tel Aviv lo porta a Betlemme da lontani parenti, il punto di rottura, là dove il corso della vita di Sihem ha invertito la rotta, fino ad arrivare, nella seconda parte della storia (più un terzo che metà, in realtà), a Jenin, dove l’origine della sua famiglia, l’incontro con parenti che aveva lasciato per dedicarsi allo studio, lo conduce all’origine della sua appartenenza al mondo arabo e in contatto con le sue radici, a ritrovare il senso di un’identità perduta nel tentativo di crearsi una sua zona d’ombra.
Ma quello che colpisce, nel romanzo di Chandra, è l’equidistanza, data anche dalla circolarità della struttura, anche dalla specularità della storia stessa: tutto quello che succede da una parte, succede dall’altra, tutto quello che si perpetra ai danni degli uni, viene subìto anche dagli altri: non c’� spiegazione per l’orrore, non c’� giustificazione per chi viene mandato al macello, né per chi si arroga le giustificazioni per diventarne strumento, nemmeno dopo la lunga tirata dell’amico poliziotto israeliano amico di Amin
Le motivazioni non hanno tutte la stessa consistenza, ma di solito sono cose che si prendono così� dice schioccando le dita. “O ti cadono in testa come una tegola oppure si radicano in te come un verme solitario. Dopo, non guardi più il mondo come prima. Hai solo un’idea fissa: sollevare questa cosa che ti tormenta corpo e anima per vedere cosa c’� sotto. Da quel momento non puoi più fare marcia indietro. D’altra parte, non sei più tu a comandare. Pensi di fare di testa tua, ma non è vero. Sei solo lo strumento delle tue frustrazioni. Per te, la vita e la morte sono la stessa cosa. In qualche modo hai rinunciato per sempre tutto ciò che potrebbe farti tornare sulla terra. Sei un extraterrestre. Vivi nel limbo, a caccia di uri e liocorni. Non vuoi più sentire parlare di questo nostro mondo. Aspetti solo il momento di passare all’atto. L’unico modo di recuperare quel che hai perso o correggere quel che hai sbagliato. In poche parole, l’unico modo di diventare una leggenda è chiudere in bellezza: trasformarti in un fuoco d’artificio a bordo di uno scuolabus o in un siluro lanciato a rotta di collo contro un carroarmato nemico. Bum! Il grande salto e, come premio, lo status di martire. Il giorno della soppressione del tuo corpo diventa così, ai tuoi occhi, il solo momento in cui cresci nella stima degli altri. Il resto, il giorno prima e il giorno dopo, non è più affare tuo: per te, non c’� mai stato.�
quando quasi sembra che Chandra voglia fornirci delle spiegazioni, perché a queste, e a quelle degli jihadisti con cui viene in contatto, controbatte con il dialogo tra il protagonista e quello che è forse il personaggio più emblematico dell’intero romanzo, quello che si autodefinisce “l’ebreo errante�, che di giustificazioni non ne fornisce a nessuno, né a ebrei né ai palestinesi: «Un muro? Cosa significa? L’ebreo è nato libero come il vento, inafferrabile come il deserto di Giudea. Se ha dimenticato di delimitare i confini della sua patria al punto da rischiare che gliela confiscassero, significa che ha creduto a lungo che la Terra Promessa fosse anzitutto quella in cui nessun muro impedisce al suo sguardo di arrivare più lontano del suo grido. […] Ogni ebreo di Palestina è un po� arabo e nessun arabo d’Israele può pretendere di non essere un po� ebreo»
Non ci sono parole, dunque, per giustificare l’ingiustificabile, per spiegare l’inspiegabile, per dare forma e risposte a un dolore che corrode da dentro due popoli devastati dall’odio, ma solo quelle per cercare di raccontarlo, anche se le parole per farlo non sempre sono scritte nel migliore dei modi.
E ora, il film.
(Isaia 1,11)
Stando alla maggior parte dei commenti negativi che ho letto su questo breve romanzo, sembra che uno dei problemi principali sia la scrittura, che in effetti non è il suo punto di forza, anche se, più che sciatta, la definirei semplice, priva di una qualsiasi cifra stilistica, viziata, forse, anche da alcune ingenuità del traduttore.
Una scrittura semplice, che però “squaderna le disavventure�, in cui il protagonista, i cui sogni vengono “conculcati� dalla realtà dei fatti, si reca al “dispensario� e il cui pseudocoraggio è una “diversione� e una “furtiva reptazione di un brivido [gli scende] fino al petto�, che mi fa pensare che non tutte le colpe debbano essere attribuite all’autore, che peraltro scrive in francese (questo per dire che dovrebbe essere meno difficile per una casa editrice trovare un traduttore di buon livello) a partire dalla scelta del titolo - ’aٳٱԳٲٰ - che è indubbiamente più suggestivo e vendibile che ’AٳٱԳٲٴ.
Ma quella raccontata da Yasmina Chandra - pseudonimo di Mohammed Moulessehoul, scrittore algerino, ufficiale dell’esercito superiore del suo paese, che dal 1999, dopo essere stato costretto a utilizzare il nome della moglie, ha svelato la propria identità ed eletto la Francia a propria nazione di adozione - è una storia che cattura e annichilisce, talmente inconcepibile per noi occidentali (e impossibile da riuscire ad accettare), che ci lasciamo trascinare nell’errare del dottor Amin Jaafari per tutti i gironi del suo inferno privato.
Lo stimato chirurgo dottor Amin Jaafari, israeliano naturalizzato, che vive in un esclusivo quartiere ebraico e opera in un ospedale ebraico; l’integrato dottor Amin Jaafari, che con la sua bella e innamorata moglie, conduce una vita dedita alla sua professione coronata di successi, privilegi e amicizie importanti a Tel Aviv; il dottor Amin Jaafari, che dopo una giornata trascorsa in sala operatoria per cercare di salvare il salvabile dopo un’attentato suicida che ha riempito di morti e corpi martoriati l’ospedale in cui lavora, svegliato nel cuore della notte da una telefonata, scopre che l’attentatore suicida, il kamikaze, l’uomo che si era fatto esplodere in quel ristorante pieno di gente seminando morte e terrore, era invece sua moglie: la dolce e silenziosa e idealizzata Sihem.
“Chi sogna troppo dimentica di vivere�, gli viene rimproverato, Vivevate sotto lo stesso tetto, godevate degli stessi privilegi, ma non guardavate nella stessa direzione.
È l’inizio di un dramma devastante, che attraversa le fasi dello choc e della negazione, quella dell’abbandono di se stesso e della rabbia per quel senso di solitudine straziante e viscerale che lo precipita nell’abisso.
Chi era Sihem e com’� possibile che una donna mai stata religiosa praticante, benestante e apparentemente soddisfatta e lontana dalla realtà politica dei Territori palestinesi, com’� possibile che quella donna, al suo fianco da quindici anni, lo abbia “tradito� in quel modo, abbandonandolo, escludendolo, fino a scegliere di infliggere a se stessa, a lui e al loro matrimonio, quell’epilogo?
E una volta accettata la colpevolezza di Sihem, com’� possibile che non ci siano stati dei messaggi da cogliere, che lei non abbia mai cercato di fargli capire quanto stava accadendo, che non abbia cercato, nemmeno per un momento, di mandargli un segnale?
Il baratro, il precipizio, l’inferno di Amin Jaafari è fatto della ricerca di quel segnale, del tentativo di trovare, attraverso l’esile filo che da Tel Aviv lo porta a Betlemme da lontani parenti, il punto di rottura, là dove il corso della vita di Sihem ha invertito la rotta, fino ad arrivare, nella seconda parte della storia (più un terzo che metà, in realtà), a Jenin, dove l’origine della sua famiglia, l’incontro con parenti che aveva lasciato per dedicarsi allo studio, lo conduce all’origine della sua appartenenza al mondo arabo e in contatto con le sue radici, a ritrovare il senso di un’identità perduta nel tentativo di crearsi una sua zona d’ombra.
Ma quello che colpisce, nel romanzo di Chandra, è l’equidistanza, data anche dalla circolarità della struttura, anche dalla specularità della storia stessa: tutto quello che succede da una parte, succede dall’altra, tutto quello che si perpetra ai danni degli uni, viene subìto anche dagli altri: non c’� spiegazione per l’orrore, non c’� giustificazione per chi viene mandato al macello, né per chi si arroga le giustificazioni per diventarne strumento, nemmeno dopo la lunga tirata dell’amico poliziotto israeliano amico di Amin
Le motivazioni non hanno tutte la stessa consistenza, ma di solito sono cose che si prendono così� dice schioccando le dita. “O ti cadono in testa come una tegola oppure si radicano in te come un verme solitario. Dopo, non guardi più il mondo come prima. Hai solo un’idea fissa: sollevare questa cosa che ti tormenta corpo e anima per vedere cosa c’� sotto. Da quel momento non puoi più fare marcia indietro. D’altra parte, non sei più tu a comandare. Pensi di fare di testa tua, ma non è vero. Sei solo lo strumento delle tue frustrazioni. Per te, la vita e la morte sono la stessa cosa. In qualche modo hai rinunciato per sempre tutto ciò che potrebbe farti tornare sulla terra. Sei un extraterrestre. Vivi nel limbo, a caccia di uri e liocorni. Non vuoi più sentire parlare di questo nostro mondo. Aspetti solo il momento di passare all’atto. L’unico modo di recuperare quel che hai perso o correggere quel che hai sbagliato. In poche parole, l’unico modo di diventare una leggenda è chiudere in bellezza: trasformarti in un fuoco d’artificio a bordo di uno scuolabus o in un siluro lanciato a rotta di collo contro un carroarmato nemico. Bum! Il grande salto e, come premio, lo status di martire. Il giorno della soppressione del tuo corpo diventa così, ai tuoi occhi, il solo momento in cui cresci nella stima degli altri. Il resto, il giorno prima e il giorno dopo, non è più affare tuo: per te, non c’� mai stato.�
quando quasi sembra che Chandra voglia fornirci delle spiegazioni, perché a queste, e a quelle degli jihadisti con cui viene in contatto, controbatte con il dialogo tra il protagonista e quello che è forse il personaggio più emblematico dell’intero romanzo, quello che si autodefinisce “l’ebreo errante�, che di giustificazioni non ne fornisce a nessuno, né a ebrei né ai palestinesi: «Un muro? Cosa significa? L’ebreo è nato libero come il vento, inafferrabile come il deserto di Giudea. Se ha dimenticato di delimitare i confini della sua patria al punto da rischiare che gliela confiscassero, significa che ha creduto a lungo che la Terra Promessa fosse anzitutto quella in cui nessun muro impedisce al suo sguardo di arrivare più lontano del suo grido. […] Ogni ebreo di Palestina è un po� arabo e nessun arabo d’Israele può pretendere di non essere un po� ebreo»
Non ci sono parole, dunque, per giustificare l’ingiustificabile, per spiegare l’inspiegabile, per dare forma e risposte a un dolore che corrode da dentro due popoli devastati dall’odio, ma solo quelle per cercare di raccontarlo, anche se le parole per farlo non sempre sono scritte nel migliore dei modi.
E ora, il film.
June 25, 2010
This is a very complicated book to rate. On the one hand, I deeply appreciated it's mission- it's a poignant and devastating look into the lives of every day people living with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and a novel where all sides get to air their point of view- and the conclusion isn't always the liberal consensus we're used to hearing. Khadra does an excellent job of giving everyone their due, making all sides compelling and tragic, right and terribly terribly misguided. He shows us the real horrors of living in a place where who you look like you are (never mind who you are) can get you killed, and every day is another day of proving who you are all over again. He is at his best just describing the horrific violence and carnage, making us experience the shock of it along with the characters. As many in the book remind us, it is one thing to be told about horrors- it is another to experience it yourself. This book, in places, does the best it can to put us in their shoes. I hate to give any book three stars that has such a wonderful mission, and is able to fulfill it to such an extent that I had to stop, put down the book, and sort out my own feelings about the conflict all over again. There are no 'right' answers comfortably to be found, and this book never lets us forget that.
However. I just was not as swept away by this as I would have liked. There are definitely writing quality issues, especially in the first 80 pages or so. Strained similies, hackneyed metaphors, heavy handed symbols are dotted through out. It isn't universal- there are some passages that are quite beautiful. But the trite just overwhelms it a lot of the time. It bothered me alongside other bits that seemed refreshingly honest, piercingly observed. Should it? Isn't anything we say about war going to come back to the same few ideas in the end? Possibly- but the book showed itself capable of much mroe nuanced expression in other places, so it was disappointing to see all that wasted only to lead up to commonplaces. The author is also quite guilty of telling rather than showing- which is a weakness of the political novel where creeds are being examined, so usually I'd be tolerant. However, the telling extended to the emotional lives of the characters, not just their beliefs- you don't need to spend a page describing to me the actions of a character that clearly tell us his emotional state... and then tell us all about his emotional state. Overkill. We get it. It did get a wee bit preachy, which came very close to taking me out of the best part of the book- the human experience of this horrible conflict- and putting it into the realm of a lecture. Oh, and also, and this is probably just due to me being a woman: I had trouble with the whole masculinity narrative running through this, and how his manhood was challenged because his wife may have found things other than him important. The way Islamic extremism was talked about in language like one would a dirty lover... parts of it felt a little misogynistic. Why must women with ideas be adulterers because their every loyalty and love is not to a man? Would you ever apply that standard to a man? It just didn't ring right to me.
I also had some issues with the translation- some of the phrases chosen in translation were a) out of date or b) just... not the right word. For example, I'm sure Kim was not "'exercised' over me giving her the slip," but perhaps "excited," or "agitated." There were a number of these mix-ups- all of them easy enough to spot, and therefore, easy enough to fix, I would think. Sloppy editing annoys me, and also throws me out of the story.
I still think it is worth reading, but to anyone expecting the emotional character study that I was- It's there, and can be quite poignant, but be aware that you'll have to tolerate some other baggage coming along with it.
However. I just was not as swept away by this as I would have liked. There are definitely writing quality issues, especially in the first 80 pages or so. Strained similies, hackneyed metaphors, heavy handed symbols are dotted through out. It isn't universal- there are some passages that are quite beautiful. But the trite just overwhelms it a lot of the time. It bothered me alongside other bits that seemed refreshingly honest, piercingly observed. Should it? Isn't anything we say about war going to come back to the same few ideas in the end? Possibly- but the book showed itself capable of much mroe nuanced expression in other places, so it was disappointing to see all that wasted only to lead up to commonplaces. The author is also quite guilty of telling rather than showing- which is a weakness of the political novel where creeds are being examined, so usually I'd be tolerant. However, the telling extended to the emotional lives of the characters, not just their beliefs- you don't need to spend a page describing to me the actions of a character that clearly tell us his emotional state... and then tell us all about his emotional state. Overkill. We get it. It did get a wee bit preachy, which came very close to taking me out of the best part of the book- the human experience of this horrible conflict- and putting it into the realm of a lecture. Oh, and also, and this is probably just due to me being a woman: I had trouble with the whole masculinity narrative running through this, and how his manhood was challenged because his wife may have found things other than him important. The way Islamic extremism was talked about in language like one would a dirty lover... parts of it felt a little misogynistic. Why must women with ideas be adulterers because their every loyalty and love is not to a man? Would you ever apply that standard to a man? It just didn't ring right to me.
I also had some issues with the translation- some of the phrases chosen in translation were a) out of date or b) just... not the right word. For example, I'm sure Kim was not "'exercised' over me giving her the slip," but perhaps "excited," or "agitated." There were a number of these mix-ups- all of them easy enough to spot, and therefore, easy enough to fix, I would think. Sloppy editing annoys me, and also throws me out of the story.
I still think it is worth reading, but to anyone expecting the emotional character study that I was- It's there, and can be quite poignant, but be aware that you'll have to tolerate some other baggage coming along with it.
January 18, 2016
Voilà probablement l'une des "review" que j'ai eu le plus de mal à écrire. Je ne sais pas par où commencer, j'ai été très touchée par ce roman et je ne suis pas sure de trouver les mots justes pour en parler.
On suit le héros, Amine, qui cherche à expliquer le geste de sa femme. Désemparé, il essaie de comprendre pourquoi elle a agi comme de cette manière mais également pourquoi il n'a rien vu, s'il avait eu la possibilité de l'empêcher. Il se retrouve confronté à une réalité qu'il avait décidé d'ignorer.
J'ai trouvé que l'écriture de Yasmina Khadra nous fait ressentir les sentiments d'Amine de façon très juste. J'ai aimé la façon d'aborder le sujet extrêmement délicat du conflit israélo-palestinien en nous montrant deux visions différentes sans forcément essayer de chercher une réponse, de donner un avis tranché ou de prendre parti.
Quelques jours après avoir refermé ce livre, j'y pense encore souvent, il continue de me faire réfléchir.
On suit le héros, Amine, qui cherche à expliquer le geste de sa femme. Désemparé, il essaie de comprendre pourquoi elle a agi comme de cette manière mais également pourquoi il n'a rien vu, s'il avait eu la possibilité de l'empêcher. Il se retrouve confronté à une réalité qu'il avait décidé d'ignorer.
J'ai trouvé que l'écriture de Yasmina Khadra nous fait ressentir les sentiments d'Amine de façon très juste. J'ai aimé la façon d'aborder le sujet extrêmement délicat du conflit israélo-palestinien en nous montrant deux visions différentes sans forcément essayer de chercher une réponse, de donner un avis tranché ou de prendre parti.
Quelques jours après avoir refermé ce livre, j'y pense encore souvent, il continue de me faire réfléchir.
February 26, 2019
A grieving man from Tel Aviv explores how his wife became a suicide bomber. I can't figure out how to review this. I was horrified most of the time.
May 13, 2020
Read on the advice of a friend. This is the story of a privileged Arab Israeli-naturalized surgeon and his wife living a pampered, almost carefree life in Tel Aviv. When the said wife blows herself in a kamikaze bomb attack.
Now the time has come for Doctor Amin to seek the causes at the root of a move he wasn't prepared to face.
I am baffled by Yasmina Khadra's neat and elegant writing style and the multiple point of views allowed to fully express and conflict in the narrative. And by the trueness of Amine's character.
Matching Soundtrack :
The Haunted Ocean, Waltz With Bachir OST - Max Richter
-----------------------
Lu sur les conseils d'un ami, l'histoire d'un chirurgien arabe naturalisé israélien et de sa femme qui vivent de leur statut privilégié à Tel Aviv. Jusqu'au jour de l'attentat kamikaze commis par la femme.
Alors c'est la recherche hectique et troublée du docteur Amine sur les causes et les racines profondes de ce choix que pour lui rien n'annonçait.
Je suis surpris par le style et la précision de l'expression de Yasmina Khadra, par la multiplicité des points de vues autorisés à s'affronter par la narration. Et par les réactions vraies d'Amine.
Musique associée :
The Haunted Ocean, Waltz With Bachir OST - Max Richter
Now the time has come for Doctor Amin to seek the causes at the root of a move he wasn't prepared to face.
I am baffled by Yasmina Khadra's neat and elegant writing style and the multiple point of views allowed to fully express and conflict in the narrative. And by the trueness of Amine's character.
Matching Soundtrack :
The Haunted Ocean, Waltz With Bachir OST - Max Richter
-----------------------
Lu sur les conseils d'un ami, l'histoire d'un chirurgien arabe naturalisé israélien et de sa femme qui vivent de leur statut privilégié à Tel Aviv. Jusqu'au jour de l'attentat kamikaze commis par la femme.
Alors c'est la recherche hectique et troublée du docteur Amine sur les causes et les racines profondes de ce choix que pour lui rien n'annonçait.
Je suis surpris par le style et la précision de l'expression de Yasmina Khadra, par la multiplicité des points de vues autorisés à s'affronter par la narration. Et par les réactions vraies d'Amine.
Musique associée :
The Haunted Ocean, Waltz With Bachir OST - Max Richter
May 13, 2019
“Nessun bambino è al sicuro senza una patria...�
Secondo più che positivo incontro, per me, con la narrativa dello scrittore algerino Yasmina Khadra, che lo scorso anno mi aveva molto colpito con , romanzo che esplora la scottante tematica del terrorismo covato nelle periferie d'Europa tra le nuove generazioni di musulmani.
“L'attentatrice�, opera di quasi quindici anni fa, ci conduce invece nel vivo della questione palestinese, nel cuore di una terra santa e dannata al tempo stesso. Il protagonista, il dottor Amin Jaafari, è un arabo-israeliano che, agli occhi della società ebraica, incarna il modello più riuscito d'integrazione all'interno dello Stato d'Israele. Cittadino israeliano dunque a pieno titolo ed eminente chirurgo presso un ospedale di Tel Aviv, Jaafari non ha dimenticato le proprie origini che affondano nella polvere delle antiche piste seguite un tempo dalla sua tribù beduina, ma è come se, dinanzi al dramma senza fine del popolo palestinese cui anzitutto lui appartiene, il suo cuore si fosse in parte anestetizzato; come se i suoi occhi si volgessero altrove, distratti dagli agi e dai privilegi che la propria posizione sociale generosamente gli accorda, come se le sue orecchie siano divenute sorde ai venti di guerra perenne che sferzano i Territori occupati. Fino al giorno in cui quella stessa guerra non si presenterà con raccapricciante violenza direttamente alle porte del suo rifugio ovattato, mostrando per di più il volto della persona a lui più cara: sua moglie Sihem.
Attraverso una scrittura fluida e magnetica che coinvolge fin dall'inizio il lettore, Yasmina Khadra racconta la discesa all'inferno, senza possibilità di redenzione, di un uomo al quale, all'improvviso, viene strappata ogni cosa, dalla donna amata alla fiducia nella vita, dall'illusione della felicità ai sogni...
Sullo sfondo, una Palestina disillusa e il suo popolo, piccolo Davide a cui sembra non restare altra arma, per combattere il grande Golia del sionismo, se non la propria carne da immolare sull'altare dell'odio che ormai, sia da una parte sia dall'altra, travolge tutto e tutti. In mezzo ai massacri e alla follia generale, queste pagine cercano di comprendere le ragioni degli uni e degli altri, lasciando intendere che tra i due pericolosi estremi (ed estremismi) esiste forse una via di mezzo in virtù della quale nessuno dovrebbe essere più privato della dignità. Perché è proprio nel momento in cui questa viene calpestata che esplode la rabbia più cieca e distruttiva.
“Ho voluto che capissi perché abbiamo preso le armi, dottor Jaafari, perché dei bambini si gettano sui carri armati quasi fossero bomboniere, perché i nostri cimiteri traboccano, perché voglio morire con le armi in pugno... perché tua moglie è andata a farsi esplodere dentro un ristorante. Non c'è cataclisma peggiore dell'umiliazione. […] Il problema è che impediscono loro di sognare, dottore. Cercano di rinchiuderli in ghetti finché vi si annullano. Per questo preferiscono morire. Quando i sogni sono conculcati, la morte diventa l'unica salvezza... �
Perfettamente caratterizzato il personaggio di Amin, la cui angoscia non avrebbe potuto trovare descrizione migliore; non da meno quello di Sihem, il cui fantasma aleggia inquietante nel corso di tutta la narrazione insieme a innumerevoli interrogativi destinati a restare in parte senza risposta.
Un romanzo coraggioso di un'intensità sconcertante, alla cui lettura si rimane avvinghiati dalla prima all'ultima pagina dove infine riecheggeranno, nonostante tutto, parole di speranza sulla possibilità di “reinventare il mondo che ti hanno negato.� Cinque stelle e lode!
Secondo più che positivo incontro, per me, con la narrativa dello scrittore algerino Yasmina Khadra, che lo scorso anno mi aveva molto colpito con , romanzo che esplora la scottante tematica del terrorismo covato nelle periferie d'Europa tra le nuove generazioni di musulmani.
“L'attentatrice�, opera di quasi quindici anni fa, ci conduce invece nel vivo della questione palestinese, nel cuore di una terra santa e dannata al tempo stesso. Il protagonista, il dottor Amin Jaafari, è un arabo-israeliano che, agli occhi della società ebraica, incarna il modello più riuscito d'integrazione all'interno dello Stato d'Israele. Cittadino israeliano dunque a pieno titolo ed eminente chirurgo presso un ospedale di Tel Aviv, Jaafari non ha dimenticato le proprie origini che affondano nella polvere delle antiche piste seguite un tempo dalla sua tribù beduina, ma è come se, dinanzi al dramma senza fine del popolo palestinese cui anzitutto lui appartiene, il suo cuore si fosse in parte anestetizzato; come se i suoi occhi si volgessero altrove, distratti dagli agi e dai privilegi che la propria posizione sociale generosamente gli accorda, come se le sue orecchie siano divenute sorde ai venti di guerra perenne che sferzano i Territori occupati. Fino al giorno in cui quella stessa guerra non si presenterà con raccapricciante violenza direttamente alle porte del suo rifugio ovattato, mostrando per di più il volto della persona a lui più cara: sua moglie Sihem.
Attraverso una scrittura fluida e magnetica che coinvolge fin dall'inizio il lettore, Yasmina Khadra racconta la discesa all'inferno, senza possibilità di redenzione, di un uomo al quale, all'improvviso, viene strappata ogni cosa, dalla donna amata alla fiducia nella vita, dall'illusione della felicità ai sogni...
Sullo sfondo, una Palestina disillusa e il suo popolo, piccolo Davide a cui sembra non restare altra arma, per combattere il grande Golia del sionismo, se non la propria carne da immolare sull'altare dell'odio che ormai, sia da una parte sia dall'altra, travolge tutto e tutti. In mezzo ai massacri e alla follia generale, queste pagine cercano di comprendere le ragioni degli uni e degli altri, lasciando intendere che tra i due pericolosi estremi (ed estremismi) esiste forse una via di mezzo in virtù della quale nessuno dovrebbe essere più privato della dignità. Perché è proprio nel momento in cui questa viene calpestata che esplode la rabbia più cieca e distruttiva.
“Ho voluto che capissi perché abbiamo preso le armi, dottor Jaafari, perché dei bambini si gettano sui carri armati quasi fossero bomboniere, perché i nostri cimiteri traboccano, perché voglio morire con le armi in pugno... perché tua moglie è andata a farsi esplodere dentro un ristorante. Non c'è cataclisma peggiore dell'umiliazione. […] Il problema è che impediscono loro di sognare, dottore. Cercano di rinchiuderli in ghetti finché vi si annullano. Per questo preferiscono morire. Quando i sogni sono conculcati, la morte diventa l'unica salvezza... �
Perfettamente caratterizzato il personaggio di Amin, la cui angoscia non avrebbe potuto trovare descrizione migliore; non da meno quello di Sihem, il cui fantasma aleggia inquietante nel corso di tutta la narrazione insieme a innumerevoli interrogativi destinati a restare in parte senza risposta.
Un romanzo coraggioso di un'intensità sconcertante, alla cui lettura si rimane avvinghiati dalla prima all'ultima pagina dove infine riecheggeranno, nonostante tutto, parole di speranza sulla possibilità di “reinventare il mondo che ti hanno negato.� Cinque stelle e lode!
April 14, 2008
I have read most of Yasmina Khadra's works and I have found them all very compelling. I feel this is the most memorable so far. The narrator is a Bedouin Arab surgeon who lives in Tel Aviv. He is enjoying the rewards of his hard work with his wife Sihem and a number of Jewish friends. His life is shattered when his wife blows herself up in a suicide bomb attack that kills numerous children at a restaurant. What follows is his attempt at understanding how he could have been so blind at not seeing the signs that led to this horrific tragedy. Yasmina Khadra is a master at showing the human suffering on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian struggle. I was particularly touched when the doctor returns to his homeland after years in exile and reconnects with the elders in his family.
June 21, 2018
"...possono toglierti tutto, la proprietà, gli anni più belli, ogni tua gioia, ogni tuo merito, fino all'ultima camicia. Ti resteranno sempre i tuoi sogni per reinventare il mondo che ti hanno negato."
May 17, 2021
Recensione originale:
Amin Jaafari è un famoso chirurgo di Tel Aviv: di origini beduine, è riuscito a prendere la cittadinanza israeliana ed è perfettamente integrato. Un giorno, vicino al suo ospedale c’� un attentato suicida. Si scoprirà ben presto che la kamikaze era sua moglie. A un’iniziale, fiera incredulità, segue la certezza che l’attentatrice fosse proprio lì. Il dottore entra in una spirale praticamente autodistruttiva che lo porta a cercare le ragioni profonde del gesto della moglie, una donna che ha sempre amato profondamente, che ha sempre pensato di conoscere, che come lui era perfettamente integrata nonostante l’origine palestinese.
Il libro è crudissimo, non tanto per le descrizioni dell’attentato (che pure non vengono risparmiate e che non sono facili da mandare giù), quanto per l’immane e incomprensibile violenza che lo permea dalla prima pagina fino all’ultima. La violenza di un popolo contro un altro, due popoli che dovrebbero convivere ma non fanno che lottare l’uno contro l’altro in modo insensato, cieco e brutale.
Khadra, algerino, descrive benissimo l’insensatezza di tutto questo: sono rimasta impressionata perché non avrei pensato che una persona proveniente da un’altra realtà potesse descrivere questo mondo tanto bene. Invece è veramente magistrale.
La scena per me più orribile e violenta non è stata tanto quella dell’attentato (che pure, come dicevo, è tutt’altro che edulcorata), quanto una delle scene finali che ovviamente non svelerò, ma che mostra con incredibile efficacia quanto sia assurda la guerra che si combatte tra queste due parti, quanto brutale e cieca di fronte a qualunque cosa.
È un libro pesante, nel senso che la violenza che sprigiona avviluppa il lettore fino a soffocarlo, ma l’ho letto in due giorni perché è di una bellezza sconcertante.
Ultima nota: nella postfazione Khadra dice di essere felice del fatto che Sellerio abbia ripreso il titolo originale, : la precedente edizione Mondadori del 2007 lo aveva pubblicato come , che secondo l’autore manca completamente il senso del libro. Infatti, aggiungo io, sebbene nel libro la narrazione ruoti intorno alla vicenda della moglie kamikaze di Amin, in realtà il tema è ben più ampio e il titolo Mondadori finiva per sminuirlo moltissimo.
Amin Jaafari è un famoso chirurgo di Tel Aviv: di origini beduine, è riuscito a prendere la cittadinanza israeliana ed è perfettamente integrato. Un giorno, vicino al suo ospedale c’� un attentato suicida. Si scoprirà ben presto che la kamikaze era sua moglie. A un’iniziale, fiera incredulità, segue la certezza che l’attentatrice fosse proprio lì. Il dottore entra in una spirale praticamente autodistruttiva che lo porta a cercare le ragioni profonde del gesto della moglie, una donna che ha sempre amato profondamente, che ha sempre pensato di conoscere, che come lui era perfettamente integrata nonostante l’origine palestinese.
Il libro è crudissimo, non tanto per le descrizioni dell’attentato (che pure non vengono risparmiate e che non sono facili da mandare giù), quanto per l’immane e incomprensibile violenza che lo permea dalla prima pagina fino all’ultima. La violenza di un popolo contro un altro, due popoli che dovrebbero convivere ma non fanno che lottare l’uno contro l’altro in modo insensato, cieco e brutale.
Khadra, algerino, descrive benissimo l’insensatezza di tutto questo: sono rimasta impressionata perché non avrei pensato che una persona proveniente da un’altra realtà potesse descrivere questo mondo tanto bene. Invece è veramente magistrale.
La scena per me più orribile e violenta non è stata tanto quella dell’attentato (che pure, come dicevo, è tutt’altro che edulcorata), quanto una delle scene finali che ovviamente non svelerò, ma che mostra con incredibile efficacia quanto sia assurda la guerra che si combatte tra queste due parti, quanto brutale e cieca di fronte a qualunque cosa.
È un libro pesante, nel senso che la violenza che sprigiona avviluppa il lettore fino a soffocarlo, ma l’ho letto in due giorni perché è di una bellezza sconcertante.
Ultima nota: nella postfazione Khadra dice di essere felice del fatto che Sellerio abbia ripreso il titolo originale, : la precedente edizione Mondadori del 2007 lo aveva pubblicato come , che secondo l’autore manca completamente il senso del libro. Infatti, aggiungo io, sebbene nel libro la narrazione ruoti intorno alla vicenda della moglie kamikaze di Amin, in realtà il tema è ben più ampio e il titolo Mondadori finiva per sminuirlo moltissimo.
October 12, 2013
سَأبدأُ بـ اقتباسٍ من الرواية :
..
*1
اعترفَ لي أبي " إن من قال لك إن الرجلَ لا يبكي .. لا يفهمُ شيئا في الرجولة
.. فلا تخجل من البكاء بني ، لأنَ الدموع أرقى مانملك "
*2
ĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶ
(4/5 )
رواية عميقة جداً في إطار بسيط ..
أمين -(الطبيب الفلسطيني والذي يحمل الجنسية الإسرائيلية أيضاً) -الزوج الذي صدم بخبر إقدام زوجته على تفجير نفسها ..
نرافقه في رحلة طويلة بحثاً عن أجوبة لسؤاله :كيف تعيش مع انسان لسنوات طويلة وفي النهاية تكتشف انك لم تعرفه اطلاقاً و لا تعرف عنه شيئاً ؟....
" السرّ الحقيقي لا يتقاسمه المرء مع أحد "
الرواية رائعة ..
وليست مليئة ببطولات وهمية ..
وبعد طول انتظار ، أخيراً ها أنا أقرأ للكاتب الكبير ياسمينة خضرا ..
من المعلوم للجميع أن هذه الرواية هي جزء من ثلاثية عن الإرهاب حول العالم ..
لم اتخذ قراراً بعد حول قراءة الجزئين المتبقيين .
المرة الأولى مع ياسمينة خضرا وبالتأكيد لن تكونَ الأخيرة ..
رابط لتحميل الرواية :
..
*1
اعترفَ لي أبي " إن من قال لك إن الرجلَ لا يبكي .. لا يفهمُ شيئا في الرجولة
.. فلا تخجل من البكاء بني ، لأنَ الدموع أرقى مانملك "
*2
ĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶ
(4/5 )
رواية عميقة جداً في إطار بسيط ..
أمين -(الطبيب الفلسطيني والذي يحمل الجنسية الإسرائيلية أيضاً) -الزوج الذي صدم بخبر إقدام زوجته على تفجير نفسها ..
نرافقه في رحلة طويلة بحثاً عن أجوبة لسؤاله :كيف تعيش مع انسان لسنوات طويلة وفي النهاية تكتشف انك لم تعرفه اطلاقاً و لا تعرف عنه شيئاً ؟....
" السرّ الحقيقي لا يتقاسمه المرء مع أحد "
الرواية رائعة ..
وليست مليئة ببطولات وهمية ..
وبعد طول انتظار ، أخيراً ها أنا أقرأ للكاتب الكبير ياسمينة خضرا ..
من المعلوم للجميع أن هذه الرواية هي جزء من ثلاثية عن الإرهاب حول العالم ..
لم اتخذ قراراً بعد حول قراءة الجزئين المتبقيين .
المرة الأولى مع ياسمينة خضرا وبالتأكيد لن تكونَ الأخيرة ..
رابط لتحميل الرواية :
January 2, 2016
4/5 ★★★★�
Ένας Παλαιστίνιος γιατρός που έχει πάρει την Ισραηλινή υπηκοότητα και ζει ευτυχισμένος με την επίσης Παλαιστίνια γυναίκα του στο Τελ-Αβίβ. Μέχρι που ένα τρομοκρατικό χτύπημα αλλάζει τα πάντα συθέμελα στη ζωή του.
Το βιβλίο είναι ένα εξαιρετικό ταξίδι ανάμεσα στις σκέψεις και τη ζωή των Παλαιστινίων, και τις εσωτερικές συγκρούσεις με τις οποίες πολλές φορές έρχονται αντιμέτωποι μπροστά στις πρακτικές του αγώνα για την απελευθέρωσή τους.
Ένας Παλαιστίνιος γιατρός που έχει πάρει την Ισραηλινή υπηκοότητα και ζει ευτυχισμένος με την επίσης Παλαιστίνια γυναίκα του στο Τελ-Αβίβ. Μέχρι που ένα τρομοκρατικό χτύπημα αλλάζει τα πάντα συθέμελα στη ζωή του.
Το βιβλίο είναι ένα εξαιρετικό ταξίδι ανάμεσα στις σκέψεις και τη ζωή των Παλαιστινίων, και τις εσωτερικές συγκρούσεις με τις οποίες πολλές φορές έρχονται αντιμέτωποι μπροστά στις πρακτικές του αγώνα για την απελευθέρωσή τους.
September 27, 2016
If you start from the principle that your worst enemy is very person who tries to sow hatred in your heart, you're halfway to happiness.
2.5 stars. This was a thought-provoking book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The storyline was interesting, and it gave me some insight into the minds of suicide bombers. The problem was that although it made me think, it did not make me feel. I think this was probably because the book was translated from French.
March 21, 2024
Pour changer un personnage de Yasmina Khadra qui n’a pas le droit au bonheur
August 2, 2020
Prosle godine sam putovala u Izrael i obnovila svoje interesovanje za ovaj deo sveta. "Atentat" sam citala (ili slusala u odlicnom nastupu Magnusa Roosmana) sa uzasom i tugom koji su rasli mnogo brze nego moje razumevanje. Da takva lepota kao sto je Jerusalim vec hiljadama godina trpi ludilo svoje dece koje samo raste i umnozava se. Da se ne vidi kraj. Da su individualni pokusaji upravo to, samo pokusaji. Khadra pise odlicno na tradicionalan nacin. Ovo je knjiga koja mi je upravo sada bila potrebna, jedna od onih kad se potpuno uzivis, kada osecas u stomaku i siris oci dok citas.
November 4, 2022
" Non è la prima volta che un attacco suicida scuote Tel Aviv, i soccorsi sono portati con efficacia sempre crescente. Ma un attentato resta un attentato. Al massimo si può gestirlo tecnicamente, non umanamente. L'angoscia e il terrore non si accordano con il sangue freddo. Quando l'orrore bussa, colpisce sempre dritto al cuore."
Amin Jaafari è un cittadino israeliano di origine araba. È anche un chirurgo. Abita in una bella e ricca zona residenziale di Tel Aviv. Ha anche una moglie affascinante, intelligente e moderna che ama i tramonti sul mare.
Eppure...
" Dalle prime risultanze dell'inchiesta lo smembramento che il corpo di sua moglie ha subito presenta le tipiche ferite dei kamikaze integralisti."
E l'incubo prende sempre più forma.
Amin Jaafari è un cittadino israeliano di origine araba. È anche un chirurgo. Abita in una bella e ricca zona residenziale di Tel Aviv. Ha anche una moglie affascinante, intelligente e moderna che ama i tramonti sul mare.
Eppure...
" Dalle prime risultanze dell'inchiesta lo smembramento che il corpo di sua moglie ha subito presenta le tipiche ferite dei kamikaze integralisti."
E l'incubo prende sempre più forma.
June 17, 2018
Tel Aviv, giorni nostri: un kamikaze si fa esplodere in una pizzeria di centro città, causando diversi morti e parecchi feriti. Uno dei tanti fatti di sangue e violenza di cui sentiamo spesso al telegiornale.
Amin Jaafari, noto chirurgo israeliano di origine araba, trascorre la nottata ad accorrere e operare i feriti che arrivano al pronto soccorso del suo ospedale. Quando rincasa, la moglie Sihem non c'è. Amin riceve una telefonata dall'ospedale, ritorna là e scopre non solo che la moglie è morta nell'attentato, ma anche che era l'attentatrice stessa. Lo sgomento iniziale cede il posto all'incredulità, sicura e ostinata, l'incredulità all'accettazione, amara e difficile, e l'accettazione alla voglia di capire, che porterà Amin a compiere un viaggio tra luoghi e persone pericolose. Il tutto condito dalla sofferenza di un animo confuso e tradito.
"L'attentatrice" è un romanzo audace e prezioso che urla al mondo un messaggio importante. Getta luce sul conflitto arabo-israeliano senzo peraltro prendere una posizione (se non quella a favore della pace), fa riflettere sull'importanza della vita umana e sull'inevitabilità del male, purtroppo onnipresente nonostante la ricerca di un dialogo e la volontà di capire...lo spiazzante finale ne è una chiara dimostrazione. E' la storia di un conflitto religioso, culturale, ideologico tra due popoli ma è anche la storia di un conflitto interiore, da parte di chi scopre che la persona che ha amato per tanti anni non era quello che credeva. Intenso, introspettivo, coraggioso e illuminante. Da leggere.
Amin Jaafari, noto chirurgo israeliano di origine araba, trascorre la nottata ad accorrere e operare i feriti che arrivano al pronto soccorso del suo ospedale. Quando rincasa, la moglie Sihem non c'è. Amin riceve una telefonata dall'ospedale, ritorna là e scopre non solo che la moglie è morta nell'attentato, ma anche che era l'attentatrice stessa. Lo sgomento iniziale cede il posto all'incredulità, sicura e ostinata, l'incredulità all'accettazione, amara e difficile, e l'accettazione alla voglia di capire, che porterà Amin a compiere un viaggio tra luoghi e persone pericolose. Il tutto condito dalla sofferenza di un animo confuso e tradito.
"L'attentatrice" è un romanzo audace e prezioso che urla al mondo un messaggio importante. Getta luce sul conflitto arabo-israeliano senzo peraltro prendere una posizione (se non quella a favore della pace), fa riflettere sull'importanza della vita umana e sull'inevitabilità del male, purtroppo onnipresente nonostante la ricerca di un dialogo e la volontà di capire...lo spiazzante finale ne è una chiara dimostrazione. E' la storia di un conflitto religioso, culturale, ideologico tra due popoli ma è anche la storia di un conflitto interiore, da parte di chi scopre che la persona che ha amato per tanti anni non era quello che credeva. Intenso, introspettivo, coraggioso e illuminante. Da leggere.
February 2, 2011
Yasmina Khadra’s novel The Attack set off a firestorm of debate at book club. The novel follows the journey of Muslim surgeon Amin Jaafari, a naturalized citizen of Tel Aviv. He shares his life with the love of his life, Sihem. It isn’t giving anything away to say that Amin’s wife turns out to be a suicide bomber, detonating herself in the middle of a restaurant filled with school children. The novel then follows Amin’s journey from denial and disbelief to acceptance, if not of his wife’s actions then at least of the motivation behind the attack.
I didn’t like the book. The problem for me is that the character of Sihem is never humanzied. She is “the creature I loved most in the world.� Anything we learn about her, we learn through the eyes of the extremeists with whom she had aligned herself behind her husband’s back. He doesn’t understand and neither did I. Mostly I felt as though I was getting a lecture about the very messy and complicated and, clearly, emotional landscape of the Middle East.
Still, the book led to a great, and often heated, discussion- if that’s your thing.
I didn’t like the book. The problem for me is that the character of Sihem is never humanzied. She is “the creature I loved most in the world.� Anything we learn about her, we learn through the eyes of the extremeists with whom she had aligned herself behind her husband’s back. He doesn’t understand and neither did I. Mostly I felt as though I was getting a lecture about the very messy and complicated and, clearly, emotional landscape of the Middle East.
Still, the book led to a great, and often heated, discussion- if that’s your thing.
February 25, 2022
⭐️ Reading Across Africa Challenge ⭐️
This was the first book of my reading across Africa challenge this year and it did not disappoint. I went into this book completely blind. Not knowing anything about the content only that it was written by an Algerian author with a bit of a “thriller� feel. I loved basically everything about it and could not put it down!
This book follows our main character whose wife is a suicide bomber. He goes on a quest to try to understand why his middle class wife would abandon her life to participate in this type of “‘mission�.
In addition, through the story you learn not only about some political dynamics of the area, but also what motivates an individual to become a suicide bomber. This book offered a perspective that I had never thought about prior to reading this book
I also want to recognize that this is a work of fiction, so that much of what I read should be taken with that in mind. Not every book is meant to teach the reader something, but I truly felt as though I may have learned a bit more about another culture than what I knew going into this story.
I will be reading more from this author in the future
This was the first book of my reading across Africa challenge this year and it did not disappoint. I went into this book completely blind. Not knowing anything about the content only that it was written by an Algerian author with a bit of a “thriller� feel. I loved basically everything about it and could not put it down!
This book follows our main character whose wife is a suicide bomber. He goes on a quest to try to understand why his middle class wife would abandon her life to participate in this type of “‘mission�.
In addition, through the story you learn not only about some political dynamics of the area, but also what motivates an individual to become a suicide bomber. This book offered a perspective that I had never thought about prior to reading this book
I also want to recognize that this is a work of fiction, so that much of what I read should be taken with that in mind. Not every book is meant to teach the reader something, but I truly felt as though I may have learned a bit more about another culture than what I knew going into this story.
I will be reading more from this author in the future
June 22, 2020
Magnífico de principio a fin. El argelino Yasmina Khadra va camino de convertirse en uno de mis autores favoritos, y no solo por un estilo que, sin ser pretencioso, sabe tocar la fibra. Sobre todo, por la forma tan particularmente empática que tiene de retratar el mal, mirándolo a los ojos, buscando sus raíces y tratando de comprenderlas. Tanto "El atentado" como "Khalil" son auténticos ejercicios de comprensión para el lector que, eso sí, debe acercarse a la obra de Khadra libre de prejuicios y dispuesto a entender otras realidades ajenas a la propia. Esta novela narra de forma cruda y realista la búsqueda de respuestas de un marido devoto cuya felicidad se trunca tras descubrir que su mujer es la autora del atentado suicida que ha sacudido Tel Aviv. Con el eco del conflicto entre Israel y Palestina de fondo, esta novela constituye un trepidante viaje hacia la redención.
April 22, 2013
محاولة لتمييع النضال و أسبابه و إظهار الصهيانة بمظهر الشعب المتعايش المتفهم ،،، أعطيتها ثلاث نجمات للأسلوب الأدبي و السرد القصصي أما الحقائق فهي عائمة تشعر معها أن يتعاطف مع النضال و أسبابه من للمجاملة فقط ...
November 23, 2022
In three words:
Emotive, touching, shocking.
Dr Amin Jaafari is an Israeli Arab. He has put himself through medical school and now works in a Tel Aviv hospital as a surgeon. He has a nice home in a nice part of the city, he and his wife Sihem attend dinner parties with their Israeli friends and are happy.
When a suicide bomber strikes in a crowded restaurant in Tel Aviv killing 19 people, including eleven children at a birthday party, the hospital is put on high alert and it’s all hands to the deck. Amin finally goes home exhausted to his wife, and assumes that her absense means that she is still with her Auntie in Nazareth. When Amin is woken only a few hours later by the police to tell him that his wife was killed in the blast and is suspected of being the suicide bomber, Amin’s life as he knows it is turned upside down�.
The Attack opens with literally that � an attack. The confusion, the silence; it all seems to happen in slow motion and we are no more clued up than those in amongst the devastation: The opening chapter is incredibly powerful.
Having lived in Israel back in the early-mid nineties (I regularly mention it on my blog as it made such an impression on me and I am still pretty obsessed with all things Israeli) I am drawn to books like this. The media, righly so, reports on the happenings in Israel as they happen but what we don’t see is what goes on behind the scenes, and after the worlds cameras have left: What we don’t see is the shattering devastation that affects everyone else. The victims of the bombs, their families and friends, the survivors, but also those of the relatives of the suicide bomber whose lives will never be the same again either. The author, in my opinion, did a good job as putting both sides of the story across. I say “good� job as I feel that it is slightly weighted in favour of the Arab view point but let’s not forget where the author is from. Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume for former Algerian officer Mohammed Moulessehoul and I feel (as the blurb on the back of the book states) he “rarely sits in judgement�. Despite the book starting with the killing of 19 Israelis, the book really centres around the suicide bomber, Sihem, and what drove a wealthy, priveledged wife of a well respected surgeon to carry out such a act.
Amin Jaafari, unable to believe what has happened or why, sets out on a journey to make sense of what he can’t believe is true and in doing this we are also taken on a journey of discovery with him which leads us through Bethlehem and Nazareth and the camps in Jenin as Sihems story unfolds. What Khadra has done is allowed us to see the other side of what gets reported � the anguish and disbelief felt by Amin as he slowly unravels a side of Sihem he didn’t know about:
“There must have been a moment, there must have been a sign, and I want to remember it, don’t you understand? I have to remember it. I have no other choice. Since I got that letter I’ve been constantly rooting around in my memories, trying to find the right one. Whether I’m asleep or awake, it’s all I think about. I’ve passed everything in review, from the most unforgettable moments to the least fathomable words and the vaguest gestures; nothing. And this blank spot is driving me crazy. You can’t imagine how much it tortures me, Kim. I can’t go on like this, pursuing it and suffering it at the same time.�
While all the time going through the mental torture that he does, Amin is also subjected to abuse from those he used to live amongst:
“Is that how people say thank you, you dirty Arab? �
“Look at the house you live in you son of a bitch. What more do you have to have before you learn to say thanks?�
As the story moves along, it is hard not to see things from both perspectives as I believe that Kharda has done a great job of allowing us this privelidge and I found my emotions swinging between the two sides with regularity: the high passions, the feelings of utter helplessness, the no hope for the future, the tit-for-tat of both sides.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens after the cameras stop rolling then read this book: it’s a great insight into how this clash of civilisations continues to roll. Just don’t look for answers; you won’t find them here.
Recommended.
Emotive, touching, shocking.
Dr Amin Jaafari is an Israeli Arab. He has put himself through medical school and now works in a Tel Aviv hospital as a surgeon. He has a nice home in a nice part of the city, he and his wife Sihem attend dinner parties with their Israeli friends and are happy.
When a suicide bomber strikes in a crowded restaurant in Tel Aviv killing 19 people, including eleven children at a birthday party, the hospital is put on high alert and it’s all hands to the deck. Amin finally goes home exhausted to his wife, and assumes that her absense means that she is still with her Auntie in Nazareth. When Amin is woken only a few hours later by the police to tell him that his wife was killed in the blast and is suspected of being the suicide bomber, Amin’s life as he knows it is turned upside down�.
The Attack opens with literally that � an attack. The confusion, the silence; it all seems to happen in slow motion and we are no more clued up than those in amongst the devastation: The opening chapter is incredibly powerful.
Having lived in Israel back in the early-mid nineties (I regularly mention it on my blog as it made such an impression on me and I am still pretty obsessed with all things Israeli) I am drawn to books like this. The media, righly so, reports on the happenings in Israel as they happen but what we don’t see is what goes on behind the scenes, and after the worlds cameras have left: What we don’t see is the shattering devastation that affects everyone else. The victims of the bombs, their families and friends, the survivors, but also those of the relatives of the suicide bomber whose lives will never be the same again either. The author, in my opinion, did a good job as putting both sides of the story across. I say “good� job as I feel that it is slightly weighted in favour of the Arab view point but let’s not forget where the author is from. Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume for former Algerian officer Mohammed Moulessehoul and I feel (as the blurb on the back of the book states) he “rarely sits in judgement�. Despite the book starting with the killing of 19 Israelis, the book really centres around the suicide bomber, Sihem, and what drove a wealthy, priveledged wife of a well respected surgeon to carry out such a act.
Amin Jaafari, unable to believe what has happened or why, sets out on a journey to make sense of what he can’t believe is true and in doing this we are also taken on a journey of discovery with him which leads us through Bethlehem and Nazareth and the camps in Jenin as Sihems story unfolds. What Khadra has done is allowed us to see the other side of what gets reported � the anguish and disbelief felt by Amin as he slowly unravels a side of Sihem he didn’t know about:
“There must have been a moment, there must have been a sign, and I want to remember it, don’t you understand? I have to remember it. I have no other choice. Since I got that letter I’ve been constantly rooting around in my memories, trying to find the right one. Whether I’m asleep or awake, it’s all I think about. I’ve passed everything in review, from the most unforgettable moments to the least fathomable words and the vaguest gestures; nothing. And this blank spot is driving me crazy. You can’t imagine how much it tortures me, Kim. I can’t go on like this, pursuing it and suffering it at the same time.�
While all the time going through the mental torture that he does, Amin is also subjected to abuse from those he used to live amongst:
“Is that how people say thank you, you dirty Arab? �
“Look at the house you live in you son of a bitch. What more do you have to have before you learn to say thanks?�
As the story moves along, it is hard not to see things from both perspectives as I believe that Kharda has done a great job of allowing us this privelidge and I found my emotions swinging between the two sides with regularity: the high passions, the feelings of utter helplessness, the no hope for the future, the tit-for-tat of both sides.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens after the cameras stop rolling then read this book: it’s a great insight into how this clash of civilisations continues to roll. Just don’t look for answers; you won’t find them here.
Recommended.
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