Il duello

by David Grossman, Daria Merlo (Translator), Alessandro Sanna (Illustrator)

Romanzo per ragazzi a partire dagli 11 anni.

Genres: Fiction, Israel

93 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

From ithl.org:

Leading Israeli novelist David Grossman (b. 1954, Jerusalem) studied philosophy and drama at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and later worked as an editor and broadcaster at Israel Radio. Grossman has written seven novels, a play, a number of short stories and novellas, and a number of books for children and youth. He has also published several books of non-fiction, including interviews with Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Among Grossman`s many literary awards: the Valumbrosa Prize (Italy), the Eliette von Karajan Prize (Austria), the Nelly Sachs Prize (1991), the Premio Grinzane and the Premio Mondelo for The Zig-Zag Kid (Italy, 1996), the Vittorio de Sica Prize (Italy), the Juliet Club Prize, the Marsh Award for Children`s Literature in Translation (UK, 1998), the Buxtehude Bulle (Germany, 2001), the Sapir Prize for Someone to Run With (2001), the Bialik Prize (2004), the Koret Jewish Book Award (USA, 2006), the Premio per la Pace e l`Azione Umanitaria 2006 (City of Rome/Italy), Onorificenza della Stella Solidarita Italiana 2007, Premio Ischia - International Award for Journalism 2007, the Geschwister Scholl Prize (Germany), the Emet Prize (Israel, 2007)and the Albatross Prize (Germany, 2009). He has also been awarded the Chevalier de l`Ordre des Arts et Belles Lettres (France, 1998) and an Honorary Doctorate by Florence University (2008). In 2007, his novels The Book of Internal Grammar and See Under: Love were named among the ten most important books since the creation of the State of Israel. His books have been translated into over 25 languages.

See also other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

”You live in a make-believe world David, and sometimes you just don’t seem to know the difference between reality and fantasy.’
How right she was. I was afraid I’d fatally confused the two this time, and I hated myself for looking at life and the people around me as if they were part of some imaginary story I was writing.

It was a blessing that David’s parents saw him with a love that was not blind. I couldn’t take the sixteen years later inhabiting his childhood body as a successful writer if they hadn’t given him a hard time. I wish there were coming of age stories where the main kid didn’t have artistic ambitions. That wouldn’t even be so bad but I didn’t like putting up with his “Oh man, this is a wowzer of a story!” kind of interjections (‘wowzer’ isn’t actually used but my most untrusted of all adjectives, ‘zany’ does rear its overdressed head). It isn’t really enough that David’s parents find him irritating to make up for having to hoist someone’s life up on a pedestal like it only counted because it had been. I’m baffled why this ended that David had just remembered all of it and decided to write about it now. The whole book read like he was triumphant twelve year old gloating from visiting his adult self. It had never happened that it wasn’t going to be a story he wrote.

Aside from Shady Pines retirement home jokes on my childhood favorite show The Golden Girls, my earliest accepted cliches about folks in old folks homes was that they enjoyed regaling visitors with stories from their past. David’s BFF (apart from a wacky zany adventure-teller he writes letters too who is mentioned as growing up to be a famous author. I could have lived without that kid) is an old man dumped in one of these places, Heinrich Rosenthal. I could have eeked through another day to when I bore young people attending to me to prove themselves charitable without David tooting his horn that he still goes to this place long after his classmates have dumped their assigned fogies. Their friendship would have been sweeter if it didn’t have to say anything about David the self professed kid in an old man’s body.

There’s another old fart hanging around the premises. He used to be a free wheeling bully in a size seventeen shoe. He still wears size seventeen shoes. This is a kid’s book so I guess that’s why he doesn’t brag to the ladies in Beit Hakerem Home for the Aged in Jerusalem about what that means. My favorite part was when David stops thinking of Mr. Schwartz as the lonely old man living on fermented passions and fears him as his own newborn worked up passions. David is no different than either of these men. I bet there was a point they could have all talked themselves out of all of it. Personally, I would have sooner known why they got worked up than that they were. There was a girl, of course. Super blonde and she is irritating as fuck. She actually gives her “laughing mouth and all her kisses” as a painting she made of her own mouth to Schwartz (she’s a world famous painter preserved in museums. That’s enough for me to imagine her as an out of this world vision- oh wait, it isn’t). Rosenthal got “her eyes” because he was the only one out of all her boyfriends to see the real her. That is kinda mean, isn’t it? Maybe if she didn’t feel the need to put on an act she could have known “the real her”. My money is that Rosenthal was the most flattering. She dated a couple of more guys before fleeing the angry mob of villagers after she lays with an English officer. Schwartz believes his missing painting is the fault of his rival and David was eavesdropping under the bed, and in the closet, to be privy to the whole scheme. I kinda felt like he’s just there to make it into something to liven up his own life. He gets to run around before school interrogating the old lady who owns the junk shop. Vera doesn’t mind because she’s fond of gossip. What did it add to the story that she was also a glamorous beauty back in the day? Edith the Blonde Amazing Artist doesn’t become much more real through her recollections, though at least Vera accounts for her fate. I felt bad for her that they turned on her for the English boyfriend but don’t angry villagers love to scapegoat “their own”? Did any of them ever think about Edith and regret what they did? It seems like they had more reason to remember her than a former boyfriend. David The Writer by passes everything about Edith The Possession. Hell, she considered it as giving her eyes and mouth to these two men. Here they are decades later with their underwear twisted up as if they did. Rosenthal is David’s buddy so he gets to feel more conflicted about the whole thing. He doesn’t want to pretend they are young men in school again and fight with pistols. David runs around like a chicken who thinks it is all about him. I wish there hadn’t been a young daughter who is a dead ringer for the ultra blonde Edith but there she is, the daughter an uber blonde. Edith told her before she kicked it that the men didn’t really know her after all and the paintings should be her daughter’s inheritance. Why didn’t she ever write a letter to the men and explain to them that she had nothing left of her mother rather than a lame scheme of stealing and photocopying the paintings? I felt like that Rosenthal moons over Edith still said more about him than it did about Edith or romance. He is still puttering about the old folk’s home when David is the grown up writer. He must have started acting like an old man living on the cold romance long before he was an old man. He must like the vision of himself best with Edith but what would he see without it. What made David or Rosenthal want to act like old men but Schwartz want to pretend it wasn’t over? Probably what made Edith believe her gesture of giving paintings away of herself was really doing any such thing. I felt bad for her daughter that she used their last moments together to do that. Of course the old men clasp her hands, her standing there looking like a young Edith. I didn’t like that. The wacky zany “a pistol duel in the middle of Jerusalem in the 1960s!” was all wrong for how sad that was. I love David Grossman (he's written a few of my most loved books) but this one got on my nerves.

[Elettra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considerato un classico della letteratura per ragazzi, Il duello è uno dei primi romanzi di David Grossman. Ambientato nella Gerusalemme del 1966, il romanzo narra le vicende di due giovani, Tommi e Yoram, amici inseparabili fin dall'infanzia ma che per colpa di un equivoco si trovano a sfidarsi addirittura a duello e questo fatto potrebbe avere tragiche conseguenze. Però questo libro non si limita ad essere un semplice romanzo per ragazzi, ma, a mio parere, trascende il genere, offrendo spunti di riflessione profondi e universali: l’amicizia e la lealtà innanzitutto, ma anche i fraintendimenti di una comunicazione non corretta. Le vicende narrate offrono poi uno spaccato significativo del delicato periodo adolescenziale, con le sue sfide emotive, i dubbi e le prime esperienze che contribuiscono alla formazione individuale.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished this and I am going to be honest I liked it more than I expected!
Still not a great book but defenetly not bad :)
Boring plot but some sentences have so much meaning to them and they really spoke to me. Over all a solid 3 stars <3

[astried · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this will be the first Grossman book that I didn't like. but I guess this is ok. There were even some moments when I felt the thrill. Perhaps a boy would like it a lot.

[Racheli Zusiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

איזה ספר מעולה! עלילה סוחפת וכתיבה נהדרת. מקסים מקסים מקסים.

[una filósofa viciosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Bastante entretenido para ser tan corto y con frases bastante interesantes.

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een vintage Grossman, dit snoepje, hij schreef het toen hij 28 was en om de zoveel jaar is er een of andere uitgeverij die het opnieuw op de markt brengt, dit jaar zowel Grossmans Israëlische uitgever als zijn Nederlandse, Cossee. Een jongensboek ook -zeg niet kinderboek- volgens zijn Italiaanse uitgever voor lezers vanaf elf jaar maar wij willen dat hier met het hele gezin lezen, en als het aan mij ligt liefst luidop, met z’n drieën samen. Een spannend verhaal dat bovendien ontzettend grappig wordt verteld. Een opsteker voor kinderen die ‘meer in hun eigen verbeelding leven dan in de werkelijkheid’, of kinderen wier ‘belangrijkste sport erin bestaat met de ogen te knipperen als ze een bladzijde van een boek omslaan’. En op een heel subtiele manier een ode aan Eretz Israël, een reflectie op ouderdom, joodse identiteit, de grote en de kleine geschiedenis, liefde en verbeelding. Twee bejaarde, ooit uit Europa geëmigreerde, mannen willen in het Jeruzalem van de jaren zestig een ouderwets duel aangaan over een verloren geliefde, en David, de jongere versie van de verteller, heeft het op zich genomen om dat te proberen voorkomen…

[Nadin · Rating 3 out of 5]

К сожалению, струны моей души повесть не задела. Читала я ее долго. Для себя ничего не открыла, и ничего не нашла.
Подача мне не зашла. Повествование от лица школьника, который в перерывах между рассказом истории постоянно сетует на непонимающих родителей, учителей. Да и сама история ни разу не душе трепещущая. Двух стариков жалко, всю жизнь жили воспоминаниями о художнице, которая им только нервы трепала, а сама никого и не любила.
Детективная составляющая тоже ни о чем. Поспрашивать бабу Веру, да почитать статейку в библиотеке – вот и вся задача. Развязка становится очевидной ровно в тот момент, когда мальчик открывает дверцу шкафа и орет благим матом в недоумении.

[Chiara Nontalini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro per bambini valido anche per fare riflettere gli adulti

[Collezionedistorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Il duello" è l’opera di esordio di David Grossman, che tra i tanti autori che amo è probabilmente il mio preferito in assoluto. Immaginavo che questa lettura avrebbe fatto al caso mio solo fino ad un certo punto, dal momento che nasce proprio come una lettura per bambini, e in effetti si è confermata tale una volta terminata.

Il protagonista racconta all’età di 28 anni un avvenimento che gli era capitato quando era un preadolescente, un dodicenne che nel suo tempo libero teneva compagnia all’anziano signor Rosenthal in una casa di riposo israeliana. Qui si erano verificate delle circostanze legate ad un amore della gioventù dell’uomo, per le quali era stato sfidato a duello da un altro anziano, e ad impedire che la situazione degenerasse era stato il nostro protagonista.

Si tratta di una storia estremamente semplice, lineare e con dei colpi di scena non proprio efficacissimi per un lettore adulto che non ne rimane più di tanto sorpreso. Non me la sento di definire acerbo lo stile dell’autore, dal momento che la struttura della storia è di certo condizionata dal target a cui è rivolta.

Già qui vediamo come Grossman si rivela capace di dare voce in modo credibile a dei personaggi molto giovani, elemento che ritroveremo nella sua produzione successiva per esempio in "Ci sono bambini a zig-zag".
Molto belle sono anche le illustrazioni a colori di Serena Riglietti, che chiunque abbia posseduto delle edizioni datate di Harry Potter riconosce immediatamente.

Si tratta in conclusione di una lettura che mi sento di consigliare ad un pubblico di molto giovani, in età di scuola media inferiore dal momento che per loro potrebbe rivelarsi appassionante nella sua semplicità. Se siete lettori un po’ più grandicelli invece, nella produzione di Grossman trovate di certo di molto meglio!

[Orly · Rating 4 out of 5]

נהניתי מהספר. דמות הילד השקט שמתחבר לקשישים מקסימה ומרעננת בספרות הילדים, הסיפור הבלשי שמסופר מנקודת מבטו כתוב היטב ומותח (לילדים בכל אופן), והחוויה האישית של ילד יוצא דופן שההורים לא מבינים אותו כתובה באופן אותנטי, נראה שגרוסמן עצמו מכיר את התחושה.

עם זאת, אני חושבת שסיפור המסגרת לא ממש מתאים לילדים. האהבה של שני הגברים לאישה מלאת החיים אך הבלתי יציבה נפשית, העולם "הישן" של שנות השלושים והארבעים באירופה ובארץ ישראל, המלחמות שברחו מהן או אליהן, אפילו בעיות הפרנסה והמקצוע דאז - קשה לי להאמין שאפילו ילד שקט ומהורהר יתחבר ממש לעלילה הזו. זה אמנם "רק" סיפור בתוך סיפור, אבל הרקע הזה הוא מניע מרכזי לאירועי הספר, וגם תופס חלק לא קטן ממנו. כספרות מבוגרים זה יכול היה להיות טוב, ועבורי היה בהחלט מעניין ומובן. אבל אני לא חושבת שאלה עלילות מתאימות לספר ילדים.

[Angela Tuson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather strange little book, but entertaining, in a ... serious kind of way. I thought it was a distilled version of The Universe Versus Alex Woods, a young adult novel by Gavin Extence. |Duel is about two old men who loved the same woman, their hatred and jealousy of each other, and how that is resolved by a boy who visits the old age home where one of them lives. Although the books is set in Jerusalem in 1966, and concerns photography, paintings and creativity, it gives little feeling about that place, time or art. Still, enjoyable .... and insightful.

[Perlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a charming tale that couldn't decide if it was a kids' book or a short story. Told by a 12 year old narrator, the story revolves around an old flame obsessed over by two men. That plot alone makes it an odd choice for a kids' book. Ostensibly, it's also about intergenerational friendships. The background of the British Mandate adds some flavor.
I think the book could have made a better adult novel, with more details, more history, more backstory.

[Eithan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short but cute book. Can't say that this is one of the most important books there are out there (which is how Haaretz describes it) but it might be more influential if a teenager reads it.
Overall the story is interesting, the book is full of delicate emotions and the relationships between young and old. The book does a good job at showing that with age we don't change a lot, we just become more sick and slow but the same emotions (though they might be a bit dull) control us

[Koen Verbrugge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kort, aangenaam verhaal over 2 vrienden die een halve eeuw schelen in leeftijd.

Verteld door de jongste vriend. Een joodse tiener, die in het lokale bejaardentehuis een vriend vindt.

Rosenthal, de oude vriend, wordt geconfronteerd met verleden als een andere bejaarde hem beticht van diefstal én dus verplicht tot duel....

Zal de tiener een oplossing vinden voordat er schoten vallen?

[Nena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het is geen slecht boek maar ik heb al betere verhalen gelezen. De verhaallijn is niet al te moeilijk te volgen. Je bent rap mee met het verhaal. Het leest heel vlot en is snel uit. Je begrijpt ook direct wie de personages zijn.

[Hila · Rating 5 out of 5]

גרוסמן ירושלמי מזוקק. (ואולי נדמה לי אבל מופיעות בו קצת דמויות ממומיק?)

[Marieke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een zalig boekje, geschreven in een zeer luchtige, logische stijl. De ontknoping was ietwat ontgoochelend, maar toch zeker een aanrader.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice short book with engaging young protagonist David and his friend Mr Rosenthal from the retirement home. Nice set of other characters make up the rest of the case as David trys to save the day.

[Gabriele Della Torre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breve racconto ben costruito.

[Heidi Willems · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 - Goed jeugdboek met voldoende interessante elementen

[emmeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Noor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het was niet het beste boek dqt ik ooit heb gelezen maar het leesde wel snel en het was beter dan ik had verwacht

[Beatriz Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roteiro simples, porém prende a atenção e a leitura é facil! Recomendo para iniciantes na leitura.

[Lies Cornelissen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

[Femke Boon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tikje te kinderachtig voor de doelgroep.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light youth book. Reading it, I knew it seemed vaguely familiar. Only after entering on Goodreads did I see that I read it before. (sigh...)

[David Mccracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much in the style of a "kid detective" book, like the Hardy Boys or Encyclopedia Brown. A small story told at just the right length and just the right level of seriousness (or not). Set in 1960's Jerusalem and it feels true to a city of immigrants importing old ideas and creating new ones.