What does the woman run away from?

Abstract

Through the relationship between Orah and the Israelis Avram, Ilan, Adam, and Ofer - a close friend, her husband and her sons - and the Palestinian Sammy - taxi driver and friend - David Grossman looks, in The Woman Flees the News (To the End of the Land), to the many facets of the intricate relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. At first glance, the plot concerns Orah’s anguish about the safety of his son Ofer, engaged in a military act of reprisal against Palestinian terrorists, of which he may become a victim. However, the development of the novel, deliberately slow, as the story delves into the mind of Orah, with extensive use of techniques of stream of consciousness, will reveal other issues such as the Israeli’s lack of consideration for the feelings of Palestinians, even if they are “friends”, and the oppression that Israeli soldiers exercise over Palestinians suspected of terrorist ties. In the midst of a conflict without prospects for a solution at the horizon, which undermines the very normalcy of life in the State of Israel, the novel is a passionate libel against wars in general, for the peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and for the value of life, without regard for ethnicity.