A controversial, award-winning story about the passionate but untenable affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, from one of IsraelтАЩs most acclaimed novelists
When Liat meets Hilmi on a blustery autumn afternoon in Greenwich Village, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Charismatic and handsome, Hilmi is a talented young artist from Palestine. Liat, an aspiring translation student, plans to return to Israel the following summer. Despite knowing that their love can be only temporary, that it can exist only away from their conflicted homeland, Liat lets herself be enraptured by Hilmi: by his lively imagination, by his beautiful hands and wise eyes, by his sweetness and devotion.
Together they explore the city, sharing laughs and fantasies and pangs of homesickness. But the unfettered joy they awaken in each other cannot overcome the guilt Liat feels for hiding him from her family in Israel and her Jewish friends in New York. As her departure date looms and her love for Hilmi deepens, Liat must decide whether she is willing to risk alienating her family, her community, and her sense of self for the love of one man.
Banned from classrooms by IsraelтАЩs Ministry of Education, Dorit RabinyanтАЩs remarkable novel contains multitudes. A bold portrayal of the strainsтАФand delightsтАФof a forbidden relationship, All the Rivers (published in Israel as Borderlife) is a love story and a war story, a New York story and a Middle East story, an unflinching foray into the forces that bind us and divide us. тАЬThe land is the same land,тАЭ Hilmi reminds Liat. тАЬIn the end all the rivers flow into the same sea.тАЭ
Praise for All the Rivers
тАЬRabinyanтАЩs book is a sort of Romeo and Juliet, a forbidden love affair between a Jewish girl from Tel Aviv and a Palestinian boy from Hebron. . . . [A] beautiful novel.тАЭтАФThe Guardian┬а
тАЬA fine, subtle, and disturbing study of the ways in which public events encroach upon the private lives of those who attempt to live and love in peace with each other, and, impossibly, with a riven and irreconcilable world.тАЭтАФJohn Banville, Man Booker PrizeтАУwinning author of The Sea
тАЬIтАЩm with Dorit Rabinyan. Love, not hate, will save us. Hatred sows hatred, but love can break down barriers.тАЭтАФSvetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
тАЬAstonishing . . . [a] precise and elegant love story, drawn with the finest of lines.тАЭтАФAmos Oz
тАЬRabinyanтАЩs writing reflects the honesty and modesty of a true artisan.тАЭтАФHaaretz
тАЬBecause the novel strikes the right balance between the personal and the political, and because of her ability to tell a suspenseful and satisfying story, we decided to award Dorit RabinyanтАЩs [All the Rivers] the 2015 Bernstein Prize.тАЭтАФFrom the 2015 Bernstein Prize judgesтАЩ decision
тАЬ[All the Rivers] ought to be read like J. M. Coetzee or Toni MorrisonтАФfrom a distance in order to get close.тАЭтАФWalla!
тАЬBeautiful and sensitive . . . a human tale of rapprochement and separation . . . a noteworthy human and literary achievement.тАЭтАФMakor Rishon┬а
тАЬA captivating (and heartbreaking) gem, written in a spectacular style, with a rich, flowing, colorful and addictive language.тАЭтАФMotke
тАЬA great novel of love and peace.тАЭтАФLa Stampa
тАЬA novel that truly speaks to the heart.тАЭтАФCorriere della Sera