[Avraham Balaban's] lyrical voice and his honest criticism of the kibbutz's social experiment will pull readers in to this elegy not only for a father but for the slow death of the socialist kibbutz dream.
Publishers Weekly
A top-notch work of literature. . . . Avraham Balaban seeks to express the sorrow of parents who missed parenthood and ... Read moreof children who missed childhood, and does this with talent and an exacting, complex, and most sensitive vision.
Eleonora Lev, Ha'aretz Breathtaking. . . . This marvelous literary text weaves together present and past, and original metaphors accompany authentic memories and literary inventiveness.
Karni A'm-A'd, Iton kibbutz The child examines with an adult eye all the participants in the drama of his childhood, looking backward, at times with anger and at times with pity, pain, irony, and love. This child is a universal hero. . . . Avraham Balaban's memoir is literature at its best.
Tamar Rodner
Ha'aretz
An important and sensitive literary work, written with restraint, wisdom, piercing insight, and impressive narrative and descriptive skill.
Dan Miron, Columbia University Many stories were written about childhood, motherhood, and parenthood in the early days of the kibbutz movement, but Balaban conveys the collective voice with great talent and new force.
Amia Lieblich, Hado'ar An English translation of a book which has appeared in Hebrew to great critical acclaim and wide appeal. A fascinating work.
David Patterson, emeritus president of the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies An extremely impressive book.
Elie Wiesel Each section is as sharp as a poem. . . . This is an unforgettable book for anyone whose life is, or has been, bound up with the state of Israel.
The Jewish Chronicle, USA
After his father's death, Avraham Balaban, author and Professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Florida, journeyed back to the kibbutz in Israel where he was raised. Intending to mourn the death of his father, Balaban is confronted with the ghost of his own life as he swirls into his past and sifts through his memories of being raised on a kibbutz. Upon examination, Balaban laments over what he know sees as a childhood lost, and parents who were restricted in parenting style by the limitations and structure of communal living. Balaban's prose is lyrical, and the book is a well-written and honest account of his own childhood that is sure to hit a nerve in all who venture to read it.
A. F. Roberts, University of California
Jewish World Book
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