- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Schocken (Oct 16 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805242511
- ISBN-13: 978-0805242515
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #291,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this stunning tale, Shalev masterfully interweaves two remarkable personal stories. Yair Mendelsohn, a middle-aged Israeli tour guide favored with bird watchers, learns that one of his new American clients fought in the Palmach, a clandestine military force in Israel's 1948 war of independence. The American recounts a day when a homing pigeon handler, nicknamed the Baby for his childlike features, was killed in that war and, in his final moments, sent off one last pigeon. Yair is familiar with the American's story and listens with wistfulness. As Yair slowly tells of his present and his past, Shalev patiently builds tension around the Baby's final dispatch, giving vivid detail on homing pigeons and conveying the unique relationship between the birds and their keepers—which echoes the touching care with which the Baby and his true love, the Girl, treat one another. The dark, stocky Yair, whose marriage is threatened by his burgeoning relationship with childhood friend Tirzah, makes a sympathetic protagonist. This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel's Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Praise for A Pigeon and a Boy
"[A] stunning tale... This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel's Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An excellent book [that]touches and breaks your heart and leaves you deep in thought about what was and what could have been."
--Hatzofeh (Tel Aviv)
Praise for Meir Shalev's Previous Work
"Meir Shalev, the Woody Allen of the desert, is an Israeli author one absolutely has to read!"
--Elle
"Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death."
--The New York Times Book Review
"It is as though the Song of Solomon had been rewritten by Gabriel Garcia Marquez... You get a master class in the storyteller's art."
--The Daily Telegraph (London)
"[A] stunning tale... This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel's Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An excellent book [that]touches and breaks your heart and leaves you deep in thought about what was and what could have been."
--Hatzofeh (Tel Aviv)
Praise for Meir Shalev's Previous Work
"Meir Shalev, the Woody Allen of the desert, is an Israeli author one absolutely has to read!"
--Elle
"Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death."
--The New York Times Book Review
"It is as though the Song of Solomon had been rewritten by Gabriel Garcia Marquez... You get a master class in the storyteller's art."
--The Daily Telegraph (London)
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant indeed, wafting the smells of old Israel and old Tel Aviv,
By Scipio Americanus "Bookman" (Bookland, North America) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Pigeon And A Boy: A Novel (Paperback)
This indeed is a marvelous story, and I am surprised that it would translate so well. (I read the book in Hebrew, and am very familiar with the locale and the lingo.) This is because Shalev is not only a great story teller, but also a wonderful writer, possessing both flair for the Hebrew language and a marvelous writing technique. As a result, only a small part of the local nuances is lost in the translation-- mainly those to do with Israeli local myths and lore, especially to do with Tel Aviv of the pre-state days. Yet I had thought more would be lost, but apparently the story is more universal than I had imagined. That, and the pacing and the language (all just right) move the story steadily and well, and even though the climax is just a wee bit melodramatic (but who am I to speak? I use such climaxes too, in my writings), it is not too much so, imo, and does wrap everything up satisfactorily. And the wrapping is left somewhat and properly frayed- again, by just the right amount, so as to leave the reader with the bitter-sweet impression of real life having been glimpsed through the paper keyhole. What else can I say? The characters are memorable, the settings even more so, and the writer's knowledge of the arcane pigeon-science, exact. Meir Shalev is clearly a writer of the first rank that should be more known here. Give it time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev,
By
This review is from: A Pigeon And A Boy: A Novel (Paperback)
This is one of those books that I couldn't put down. Both captivating and haunting, I am still mulling over the mood and images it conveyed.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pigeon and a boy,
By
This review is from: A Pigeon And A Boy: A Novel (Paperback)
Excellent read. An incredible journey and a total love for his country and the birds. What a great romance.
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