The Hilltop: A Novel, by Assaf Gavron
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The Hilltop: A Novel, by Assaf Gavron
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Mordantly funny and deeply moving, this award-winning novel about life in a West Bank settlement has been hailed as “brilliant” (The New York Times Book Review) and “The Great Israeli Novel [in which] Gavron stakes his claim to be Israel’s Jonathan Franzen” (Tablet).On a rocky hilltop stands Ma’aleh Hermesh C, a fledgling outpost of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. According to government records it doesn’t exist; according to the military it must be defended. On this contested land, Othniel Assis—under the wary gaze of the Palestinians in the neighboring village—lives on his farm with his ever-expanding family. As Othniel cheerfully manipulates government agencies, more settlers arrive, and a hodge-podge of shipping containers and mobile homes takes root. One steadfast resident is Gabi Kupper, a former kibbutz dweller who savors the delicate routines of life on the settlement. When Gabi’s prodigal brother, Roni, arrives penniless on his doorstep with a bizarre plan to sell the “artisanal” olive oil from the Palestinian village to Tel Aviv yuppies, Gabi worries his life won’t stay quiet for long. Then a nosy American journalist stumbles into Ma’aleh Hermesh C, and Gabi’s worst fears are confirmed. The settlement becomes the focus of an international diplomatic scandal, facing its greatest threat yet. This “indispensable novel” (The Wall Street Journal) skewers the complex, often absurd reality of life in Israel. Grappling with one of the most charged geo-political issues of our time, “Gavron’s story gains a foothold in our hearts and minds and stubbornly refuses to leave” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
The Hilltop: A Novel, by Assaf Gavron- Amazon Sales Rank: #253511 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-13
- Released on: 2015-10-13
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.00" w x 5.25" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 464 pages
Review "Brilliantly attuned to the madhouse complexities of the current settlement crisis. . . . The superbly orchestrated chaos that results makes this an indispensable novel of, as one character dubs it, the ‘Wild West Bank.’" (The Wall Street Journal)"Expansive, humorous . . . Gavron's satiric touches can be coruscating . . ." (The New Yorker)"[A] brilliant book . . ." (The New York Times Book Review)"The Great Israeli Novel. . . . Assaf Gavron stakes his claim to be Israel’s Jonathan Franzen . . . Gavron writes realistic fiction with a comic edge that aims to take the temperature of his whole society, to tell us how Israelis live now . . . a cutting satire." (Adam Kirsch Tablet)"A middle vision between the ridiculous and the sublime. . . . Highlights the way nothing (or no one) is isolated anymore. Investment bankers may become Israeli settlers; Palestinian villagers have lawyers in the family. . . . The pleasure of The Hilltop is that it doesn't offer easy outcomes . . ." (David Ulin Los Angeles Times)"In The Hilltop, Gavron’s unique gift is on full display in all of its eccentric, genre-bending glory. He treads the line between the serious and the absurd, the tragic and the comical, the sincere and the satirical, and creates a sweeping, complex story that raises more questions than it provides answers." (Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner)"It is no exaggeration to say that Assaf Gavron is the most exciting, inventive, and though-provoking Israeli novelist of our generation.The Hilltop is a perfect example of the wry and satirical style that has made him a household name in Israel and it is sure to do the same for him here in the U.S. I loved this book." (Reza Aslan, New York Times-bestselling author of Zealot and No god but God)"An ambitious novel, a distanced overview, meticulously realistic . . . Gavron represents a distinctly new generation of Israeli writing." (The Times Literary Supplement (London))"Deals with Israel's overaching conflicts—Jew versus Jew, Jew versus Palestinian—and presents them with a nuanced complexity that feels very real. It's a funny and ultimately melancholy read." (NPR)"Assaf Gavron allows us to understand the political situation in the Middle East in careful, profound and nuanced terms. He is unafraid to go into zones of conflict and find the essential human contradictions there. Gavron’s work is engaging in the way that all good literature entertains—it is, in fact, very funny—but it also has lasting purpose. He is one of the most agile and necessary voices of contemporary Israeli literature.” (Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic)"Writing with crisp insight and dry humor, Israeli author Gavron (Almost Dead, 2010, etc.) tells a lively tale of life in an embattled Jewish settlement on an arid, rocky West Bank hilltop in this award-winning novel. . . . Gabi’s and Roni’s stories unfold gradually, and in the midst of this wise and waggish tale, we may find ourselves feeling unexpectedly invested in these disparate brothers' fates. Slowly and incrementally, like those settlers on that craggy West Bank hilltop, Gavron’s story gains a foothold in our hearts and minds and stubbornly refuses to leave." (Kirkus (starred review))"Wittily details the winks, nods, and semantic play that enable so many—officially illegal—settlements such as Ma'aleh Hermesh C. to remain and even expand. . . . Gavron's story is infused with gentle, everyday humor and flickers of kindness, including between Arabs and Jews." (Financial Times (London))"Assaf Gavron is one of the most original and powerful writers on the Israeli scene. His clear and honest writing blasts right through the clichés and the politically correct surface to touch the chaotic, ambiguous core of the Israeli identity. The Hilltop is Gavron's latest and most impressive attempt to map the Israeli society. His perspective is a must-read for every seriously curious reader." (Etgar Keret, author of The Nimrod Flipout and Suddenly, a Knock at the Door)"This many-storied, funny, shrewd, and tender satire dives into the heart of Israel, a land of trauma and zeal, fierce opinions and endless deliberation. From failed marriages to governmental dysfunction to the tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gavron’s spirited desert saga embraces the absurd and the profound and advocates for compassion and forgiveness, even joy." (Booklist (starred review))"The Hilltop shimmers with wisdom, truth, humor, and melancholy. It’s a beautiful novel to behold, even if the world it depicts is vigorously alive, like a poke to the eye." (Amos Oz, New York Times-bestselling author of A Tale of Love and Darkness)"Sardonic and engaging. . . . Gavron excels at unmasking the contradictions that characterize Israeli society. . . . His hilltop may be fictionalized, but it embodies, perhaps more than any journalistic or documentary attempt in recent years, the mechanisms by which extremism crosses over and adopts the bureaucratic language and signifiers of the officially sanctioned." (Haaretz)"The great novel of Israel’s inner life." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)"In The Hilltop, Assaf Gavron tackles the intractable stew that is West Bank settlement. A book that further cements his place as one of today’s truly committed, political Israeli novelists.” (Nathan Englander, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank)"A rich, complex story of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. . . . Gavron’s novel is marked by its great depth of feeling and its disparate themes.” (Publisher's Weekly)"Gavron expertly works with a large cast of characters to create a resonant portrayal of life at the center of one of the world's main trouble spots. . . . This novel, an award winner in Israel, is very funny and entertaining." (Library Journal)"Gavron deeply implicates America in Israel's troubles . . . Compelling . . . Touchingly human." (The Forward)"Compelling narrative prose . . . The Hilltop is recommended to all readers . . ." (New York Journal of Books)"Something entirely new—a comic settlement-saga that attempts to understand the terrible saga of the settlements." (The Guardian (London))"A unique attempt to consider the phenomenon [of illegal settlements] not from a merely political point of view, but as a tale of human endeavor, in all its glory and its folly." (The Jerusalem Post)“By turns, serious and satirical, The Hilltop skewers the complex, often absurd reality of life in Israel, the West Bank settlers, and the nation’s relationship to the United States.” (Jewish Books in Brief)
About the Author Assaf Gavron is the author of seven books, and his fiction has been translated into ten languages. He has won the Israeli Prime Minister’s Creative Award for Authors, the Book fur die Stadt award in Germany, and the Prix Courrier International award in France. The son of English immigrants, he grew up in a small village near Jerusalem and currently lives in Tel Aviv.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Hilltop
The Convoy
A hilltop. The earth light and still, almost barren: a brownish yellow, dotted with rocks and lonely olive trees, and, here and there, soft patches of green brought on by the rain. Cutting through the center of the hilltop ran a narrow and bumpy single-lane road. A trailer—a mobile home—attached to the back of a large truck slowly climbed and descended its winding path. A yellow Palestinian cab bearing a green license plate crawled along impatiently behind. And after the cab chugged an old and dusty white Renault Express, its rear window bearing stickers declaring MY GOLANI DOESN’T EXPEL JEWS; HEBRON—NOW AND FOREVER; and BRING THE OSLO CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE. Behind the wheel of the Renault sat Othniel Assis—bearded, wearing a large skullcap, just as dusty as his vehicle. Weeping miserably in a car seat in the back sat his youngest, three-year-old Shuv-el. He had dropped his packet of Bamba as they rounded one of the sharp bends, and neither he nor his father could pick it up off the floor of the car. Yellow crumbs from the peanut butter–flavored snack had stuck to one of the child’s sidelocks. The fourth vehicle in the impromptu convoy that day on the rough road through the Judean hills was a military jeep, a David, carrying the section commander, Captain Omer Levkovich, along with his crew. The road rose sharply. The truck shifted down a gear; its engine screamed and carried the vehicle up the incline, the same slow pace of the herd of goats that ambled indifferently along the side of the road. The cabdriver mumbled something in Arabic, blew his horn, and pulled off a dangerous passing maneuver. Seconds later, one of the cab’s tires blew—a dull thud, the sound of rubber being dragged across the tarmac, the car bouncing along the road, the driver’s curses. The cab came to a halt, blocking the road. Out stepped Jeff McKinley, the Washington Post’s Jerusalem correspondent, on his way to interview a high-ranking Israeli government minister who lived in a settlement some six kilometers from where they had stopped. McKinley looked at his watch and wiped a bead of sweat from his wide brow. The evening before, his father had told him about the snow that was falling in Virginia; here he was in February, already perspiring. He had ten minutes to get to the meeting at the minister’s home. He couldn’t wait for the flat to be fixed. McKinley handed the cabdriver a fifty-shekel note and walked off in the direction of the hitchhiking station he spotted a few dozen meters away. But, as if the perspiring, the time crunch, and his heavy breathing—a sign of his lack of fitness and an urgent need to diet—weren’t enough, someone had beaten him to the station and was first in line for a ride. Dressed in a finely tailored suit, the man stood there with his arms folded across his chest, a large suitcase at his feet, a broad white smile on his face, uttering words in Hebrew that McKinley didn’t understand. Before McKinley could reach the ride station, the dusty Renault signaled and pulled over. “Shalom, fellow Jews!” Othniel Assis called out. “Where are you headed?” the man with the suitcase asked the driver. “Ma’aleh Hermesh C.,” Othniel Assis replied, glancing at the blue suit, and then into the man’s eyes, which appeared weary. “For real? You’re a star, bro,” the man said, picking up his heavy suitcase from the faded tarmac. “Do me a favor, buddy,” the driver said. “Help the kid—his Bamba fell onto the floor.” Othniel then turned to the American. “What about you, dude?” he asked in Hebrew. “Can you get me anywhere near Yeshua, where Minister Kaufman lives?” McKinley responded in English. “What?” said Othniel. “Settlement?” McKinley said in an effort to simplify matters, after repeating his first question to no avail. “Settlement, settlement—yes!” Othniel smiled. “Please, please.” McKinley’s limited knowledge of the area didn’t include the fact that its hilltops were home not only to Ma’aleh Hermesh and its two outgrowths, B. and C., but also to Givat Esther and its offshoots, to Sdeh Gavriel, and to Yeshua, where the minister resided. He squeezed into the backseat alongside the child. The convoy—a trailer home on a truck, a company commander and his crew in a jeep, and a dusty pickup, carrying a settler and his child and two hitchhikers, an American and an Israeli—turned onto a second road. This road was even narrower, and steeper, too, and so, once again, the two smaller vehicles were doomed to crawl along at the snail’s pace dictated by the larger truck. Captain Omer’s gray-green eyes remained firmly planted on the rear of the trailer, displaying a touch of apprehension at the thought of the vehicle’s load detaching and crashing down on the jeep behind it. He glanced at his watch and then turned to gaze into the side mirror. “Tell me something, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Othniel asked his Hebrew-speaking passenger. The man stared for some time at the driver’s large head and at the wide skullcap that covered it. “I don’t know,” he replied. “My brother lives here with you, but we don’t look alike at all.” Othniel cast a quick look over his shoulder at the man with the black hair and then turned to focus on the road again. His passenger offered some assistance. “Gabi Kupper. Do you know him?” The driver frowned. “We don’t have anyone by that name,” he said. “We have a Gavriel. Gavriel Nehushtan. A great guy. A real prince. He works with me on the farm.” “Nehushtan?” Roni Kupper replied, his turn to frown. The American journalist glanced impatiently at his watch. The slow climb up the hill ended at the entrance into Ma’aleh Hermesh A. The three vehicles drove through the gate, turned right at the traffic circle, and made their way through the well-established settlement with its stone homes, paved streets, and small commercial area comprising a winery, a horse ranch, and a carpentry workshop. They then headed across a desolate hilltop before reaching the trailers of the sister settlement Ma’aleh Hermesh B., beyond which the tarmac ended and a dirt road plunged steeply down into the wadi, traversed the dry riverbed, and began climbing up the other side. “All gone, Daddy!” Shuv-el announced, on finishing his Bamba. A sickly sweet stench filled the car. “Did you go, sweetie?” the father asked his son. “Holy crap!” hissed Roni Kupper. “What is this place?” Jeff McKinley did his utmost to refrain from retching. A yellow dust rose from the wheels of the vehicles into the crisp sky above and after snaking their way along for a while, they came to a water tower bearing a crudely drawn Star of David, followed immediately by an IDF guard tower, and finally the eleven trailers that made up the outpost, spread out along a circular road. Manning the guard post stood Yoni, the soldier, a rifle at an angle across his chest, his one hand on the butt, welcoming the arrivals in his Ray-Bans with a boyish smile on his face. An untamed landscape stretched out before them—the Judean Desert in all its splendor and beauty, with its arid hilltops and the Dead Sea tucked away at their feet, and beyond it, rising up on the horizon, the mountains of Moab and Edom. Occasional villages and settlements dotted the expanse of land, while farther in the distance stood the truncated summit of the Herodium and the homes of a large Palestinian town, some of which appeared wrapped in a giant gray concrete wall, like a gift that couldn’t be opened. A large improvised sign stood just beyond the entrance to the outpost, the handwriting almost like a child’s, in Hebrew and English, reading: “Welcome to Ma’aleh Hermesh C.”
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Even if you're anti-settlements, this is a good read By Eileen Auerbach I read this book specifically because our rabbi recommended it as very widely read in Israel and as a good possibility for a synagogue discussion. The book is an account of the lives of a group of miscellaneous Israeli settlers in, many of whom are misfits, who are populating a West Bank hilltop as part of an illegal settlement. They live in extremely reduced circumstances (erratic electricity, water, heat, etc.), and their lives are uncomfortable, to say the least. Most are orthodox, most want to unseat the Palestinian residents, but not all. They are under constant threat of having their settlement dismantled by the Israeli government and military. The two brothers who are the protagonists have led dramatically star-crossed lives. Although the settlement is partly on national park territory and partly on territory on land belonging to a Palestinian village, it's the Palestinians who represent the benign presence to the reader. The Israeli government and military agencies are presented as unpredictable, politicized and ineffectual. The book is at the same time amusing and also dark. To my surprise, because I am 100% anti-settlemen and because I see Israeli expansion in the West Bank as a true obstacle to peace in the region, I found the representations of the settlers relatively sympathetic. I attribute this to the skill of the author.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful. The most talked about Israeli novel in 2013 By Grey Wolffe This has been hailed as the ‘Great Israeli Novel’ (by “Time Out” in Tel Aviv) because of the story line. It could be the “The Grapes of Wrath” in the way it indicts Israeli society on the way it treats the settlements on the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria), and how society tries to ignore the existence of the Arabs. The book is three stories in one. The first story is the establishment of the illegal settlement of Ma’aleh Hermesh C (MH-C).The name tells us much about the settlement. Ma’aleh Hermesh A (MH-A) is a thriving kibbutz on the West Bank that has already sent out tendrils that became MH’B’. Now another group has decided to establish a settlement on a hilltop of land above an Arab town and on land that is partially set aside as a ‘preserve’. Like most illegal settlements, it is led by ultra-orthodox Jews who believe that Judea and Samaria belong to Israel and that the Arabs have been squatters for two thousand years.Othniel Assis originally settled the hilltop as part of an agricultural station that was part of MH-A. This is what this land next to the Preserve was supposed to be for. But little by little, Othni has been inviting other families to move up to the hilltop and establish MH-C. They bring in trailers, build a synagogue, a day care center and a playground (donated by an American millionaire). Othni uses his connections in the Israeli government to get an Israeli (IDF) outpost put in to protect the settlement.How Othni connives to keep the settlement going, both by legal and non-legal methods can be comical and inspired. The protective fence that is being built to protect Israel from infiltration by sabotagers, is to go through part of the settlement. He is trying to convince the authorities to put it through the olive orchards of the Arab town in the valley below. Even though he has been warned that his settlement is illegal and will be torn down, Othni continues to negotiate with the government authorities to pave the road up to MH-C and connect them to the national power grid.The other two stories that are interwoven with the MH-C settlement, are about two brothers who were orphaned and brought up on another kibbutz by their aunt. The two boys Gabi and Roni make totally different life choices when they leave their kibbutz but both end up at MH-C. Where their lives take them and how they deal with Israeli society is the real backbone to this story.If you want a slightly unvarnished view of Israel from a contemporary writer, this is the story to read. In 2013 this book was awarded the “Bernstein Prize” (the second most prestigious in Israel).zeb kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Sort of Catch-22 Israeli style. By Thom Seaton Full of humor, confounding and insightful, The Hilltop provides a picture of modern Israel that successfully captures its people - in Israel proper and in the territories, in the army and in the country's (in)famous bureaucracy. Translated in the modern idiom, it is far from pedantic, but invites readers to draw their own conclusions while getting to know well-drawn characters not soon forgotten.
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