The Tunnel: A Poignant Tel Aviv Story of a Family Confronting Dementia and the Israeli-Palestinian Divide

by A.B. Yehoshua, Stuart Schoffman (Translator)

From the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Israeli author, a suspenseful and poignant story of a family coping with the sudden mental decline of their beloved husband and father—an engineer who they discover is involved in an ominous secret military project

Until recently, Zvi Luria was a healthy man in his seventies, an engineer living in Tel Aviv with his wife, Dina, visiting with their two children whenever possible. Now he is showing signs of early dementia, and his work on the tunnels of the Trans-Israel Highway is no longer possible. To keep his mind sharp, Zvi decides to take a job as the unpaid assistant to Asael Maimoni, a young engineer involved in a secret military a road to be built inside the massive Ramon Crater in the northern Negev Desert.

The challenge of the road, however, is compounded by strange circumstances. Living secretly on the proposed route, amid ancient Nabatean ruins, is a Palestinian family under the protection of an enigmatic archaeological preservationist. Zvi rises to the occasion, proposing a tunnel that would not dislodge the family. But when his wife falls sick, circumstances begin to spiral . . .

The Tunnel— wry, wistful, and a tour de force of vital social commentary — is Yehoshua at his finest.

Genres: Fiction, Israel, Jewish, Audiobook, Middle East, Literary Fiction, Book Club

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2018

About the author

Abraham B. Yehoshua (Hebrew: א.ב. יהושע also: אברהם ב. יהושע) is one of Israel's preeminent writers. His novels include A Journey to the End of the Millenium, The Liberated Bride, and A Woman in Jerusalem, which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2007.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zvi Luria, a retired highway engineer lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Dina, a pediatrician. They’ve been married for 48 years, are both in their 70’s, and have two adult children.
Luria’s memory is declining-not full blown dementia or Alzheimer’s - but there’s concern. In fact, Luria’s doctor encourages Luria to not ‘label’ his mental decline-rather engage in activities or exercises that will help sharpen his brain.

One night, Luria attends a reunion with workers from his ex-job.....
which then sends Luria back to his old office ( just curious to look around)...when he see’s Asael Maimoni sitting at Luria’s old desk.
Maimoni was the son of an employee who had worked - many great years - with Luria.

So? What better way for Luria to keep his mind sharp but to assist Maimoni— working in a field he’s an expert at. A friendship grows between Luria and Maimoni that’s endearing- but complications get tangled just as fast.

Maimoni is working on a military project - a hush-hush- project - building a road in the Negev desert ( near a non-impact crater/ Makhtesh Ramon Crater - a geological feature in Negev).

Living nearby where the roadwork is to be built - and a tunnel connecting easy entrance between Israel and Palestine.....is a Palestinian family living ( mostly secretly), up on a hill.
Note: many of my own memories came flooding back from when I met a hiding family in the hills of Negev. A large family —-with many beautiful little children. I was riding a tractor with some other Israeli’s when we met the family living in their tent- site. We all took pictures of one another and we shared food with them.

In this story Luria becomes friends with a young women....who's family is living on the hill. It gets complicated -- boundaries - human justice -road work - and so on...
and we witness how Luria manages his relationships- his job expertise - with his new medical condition. Driving a car becomes an issue.

Luria continues having medical check ups on the status of his ( shhh: non dementia).... and his wife ( Mrs. Medical Doctor herself), becomes very sick.
I never knew where the story was going with this added story.

There are a few hilarious scenes —
I may never think of Romeo and Juliet the same again.....
Or...
And a reader may think twice before allowing Grandpa to watch over two little kids as the single adult Guardian in charge.

The relationships are priceless be Luria and his wife Dina - his son - Maimoni- the doctor - and a young woman ....

...Aging is not for the weak....nothing about Luria is.
...Long term - aging marital couples - together - brings out tender dilemmas
...A wonderful protagonist- terrific supporting cast - great storytelling-
witty - thought provoking — and best of all this book was just
HUGLY ENJOYABLE.

...A.B Yehoshua has an ear for family relationships- his humor lightens the drama. He writes of ordinary people - shines a light on engaging dialogue and situations- has a wonderful funny bone - creates great visuals - and kicks in importance about Israeli culture at the same time.

Other books I’ve read by Yehoshua: ( don’t think I wrote reviews; read some of these before Goodreads)...
“A Woman in Jerusalem”,
“The Lover”,
“The Retrospective”,
“ Friendly Fire”.

“The Tunnel” reminded me —once again - how much I enjoy
A.B Yehoshua. His comic tragic quirkinesses, insights, and relevances, are relatable with our own contemporary lives.
He has written over a dozen books. ( I have more to explore)
He is 83 years of age. Lives in Israel.....and has won numerous literature awards.

[Roberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sopravvissuto (io)

Non so quale dei seguenti aggettivi sia più consono a questo libro: noioso, inconcludente, inverosimile, poco empatico, improbabile.
A metà libro decido però che non mi interessa scoprirlo e lo abbandono.

Ho avuto l'impressione che, ad essere colpito da demenza senile, più che il protagonista sia l'autore, che peraltro ho molto apprezzato in altri romanzi antecedenti.

[Agnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sicuramente importante il simbolo del tunnel come metafora dell'unione tra il popolo d'Israele e i palestinesi e dolcissima la descrizione degli sforzi del protagonista per combattere l'inizio della demenza ricorrendo a vari strattagemmi per contrastare la progressiva perdita di memoria ; ma quello che mi è piaciuto di più è la descrizione del rapporto tra moglie e marito che, dopo 48 anni di matrimonio, hanno una bellissima complicità e dimostrano il loro amore cercando di evitare l'uno all' altro preoccupazioni e dispiaceri, aiutandosi reciprocamente ad affrontare gli ostacoli quotidiani che emergono.
Avevo letto, e mi era piaciuto molto, Il signor Mani, ho tentato un paio di volte con
Viaggio alla fine del millennio, ma ancora non riesco ad entrarci , ero un po' timorosa che l'argomento della demenza fosse non proprio allegro, ma non ho resistito ed ho fatto bene : una lettura piacevolissima !
Finito troppo presto : per fortuna ne ho ancora tanti altri da leggere di Yehoshua !

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

A. B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's best novelists, and by now an elder statesman of Hebrew literature, has not lost his touch. His latest novel is written in lively style, and it is original and unusual. The main protagonist is a retired road engineer, Zvi Luria, whose brain is atrophying. As the novel progresses, he becomes increasingly disoriented, yet, at the same time, more humane and open with people - and also more obsessive.
The first symptom, which alerted him to the problem, was an inability to remember people's first names. Anyone who has read Yehoshua's novels knows that he has a thing about names. For example, in Molkho, we never learn the main character's first name at all, and in other works of his the characters are not named but referred to by epithets.
The novel doesn't exactly have a plot, and it also doesn't have any bad guys. The only bad guy is the growing hole in Luria's brain. The title of the book means "tunnel," and one of the issues in the book is whether a tunnel will be built under a hill in the desert instead of simply leveling the hill to make a new road. The tunnel is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in Luria's brain.
It took me a long time to read this 323 page novel, not just because it's in Hebrew, and I'm a slow reader in Hebrew, but also because it proceeds with a kind of aimlessness that reflects Luria's mental state.
I imagine this book is being translated already, and for those of you who don't read Hebrew, you will have a treat in store for you when it is published in English.

[Jan Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could say this is a book about heading into a dark tunnel, or at least one something like a carnival funhouse.

At the beginning, we're at the neurologist's office with Svi Luria, a retired roads engineer, and his pediatrician wife, learning, along with them, that Svi, our protagonist, has signs of -- maybe -- early dementia. The neurologist says Luria should fight its encroachment by finding part-time work in his field -- by remaining active -- and with passion.

Really? Go out and build a few private roads?

Nevertheless, necessity is the mother of invention, and opportunity does arise, on the occasion of a retirement party at his former department.

He is aware, conscious, self-reflective, but also he is becoming forgetful of ordinary things. He confabulates to cover it up. He can get mixed about who is who. And his judgment! It's heading downhill.

I am not sure what he was like before, but maybe he has that trait more typical of men than women, such that he prefers to ask forgiveness later rather than ask for permission: not one of my favorite traits. In other words, he wants to do what he wants to do.

I read somewhere that sports stars, although reaching the peak of physical strength at an early age, say early twenties, continue to improve due to training and experience, even once their physical prowess begins to decline, until eventually, with increasing age, the balance tips toward loss. We meet Luria during that point where the tension between creativity and loss still allows for surprises and creative bursts.

The translation is good. We'd say "retiree" rather than "pensioner."
I got the impression that work colleagues and the like were more open and direct with each other than Americans are.

It's a good book, easy to read, accessible, and so well-written: the author shows character and emotions with a few deft strokes. Regarding the Palestinian characters, I understood the undercurrent of exploitation but not sure about what each of them wanted -- father, daughter, and son. As to the main character, the guy with the encroaching dementia, I sympathize but am not quite sure I like him that much or would have earlier in his life. He's a little too pushy, and in his current state, he doesn't know how to stay out of trouble with that as well as he might have ordinarily.

I did just find out that his translator, Stuart Schoffman died this weekend. He wrote for Jewish Review of Books, so I have been reading him since 2011 without really knowing him, so I am just putting this together now. https://mailchi.mp/jewishreviewofbook...

[lise.charmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il tunnel racconta la storia di un ingegnere civile in pensione a cui viene diagnosticata una demenza. Poiché il neurologo gli suggerisce di mantenersi attivo mentalmente, si adopera per affiancare un giovane ingegnere nella progettazione di una strada dell'esercito con annesso tunnel.
mentre la demenza avanza, l'ingegnere incontrerà una famiglia palestinese diventata praticamente apolide.
La storia è interessante, ma non ho ben capito dove voglia andare a parare Yehoshua e anche l'inserimento di certi episodi e personaggi non mi ha convinta, mi sembra che siano dei pezzetti infilati a caso.
Il finale mi è sembrato simbolico, ma non ho capito la simbologia :(
La scrittura è sempre superlativa, ma non mi è bastata.

[Siv30 · Rating 2 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/המנה...

[Barbaraw - su anobii aussi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al ritmo della sua malattia - la demenza annunciata sin dalla prima pagina - il lettore accompagna l’ingegner e Zvi Luria nel tunnel del titolo; io lo leggo non solo come tunnel simbolico tra le regioni nemiche dove ci troviamo, tunnel di riparo per Palestinesi che devono nascondersi ma anche tunnel proprio della malattia che oscura solo a tratti la mente di Zvi, passaggio a un'altra condizione, e, nella realtà questa volta, come la prova del valore di quell'uomo, lucido e capace, sostenuto da una grandissima moglie.
Il tunnel, scuro per definizione,porta in Yehoshua all’ aria, alla speranza che alita sempre nei suoi libri.
Possiamo leggere i suoi libri come canti della disperazione: risorse umane a zero, matrimoni come divorzi, malattie come tunnel, ma canti appunto.
È pura fede che si esprime, più fortemente spesso nei personaggi femminili (ripenso alla musicista della Comparsa).
Ora, esco dalla visione del film The Wife e sono perplessa sul ruolo di queste mogli presenti nei racconti: mirabilmente vicine come la Dina di questo romanzo, ambivalenti come The Wife, tra ammirazione e disprezzo, sempre in difesa dei loro compagni, e non so che cosa pensare. Aspetto.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet but affecting story that gradually builds in under-stated drama. Laced with wit and poignancy. Puts me in mind of a toned-down Stanley Elkin, minus the exuberant prose and emotion. The ending left me baffled at first, but the more I thought about, the more I find out it appropriate, if perhaps a bit intellectual or heavy-handed, an approach Y. avoids throughout the rest of story.

I would be happy to read more of Yehoshua.

[Fran Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a complicated joy to read a novel by Yehoshua. His characters are complex, richly drawn, often annoying yet well-meaning, and the reader cares about them. His description of Israel is similar.
This particular novel, "The Tunnel," is a beautifully intertwined story about identity in many forms--forgetting, hiding, pretending, growing older, and also the identities of Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

The book begins as Zvi Luria, a retired engineer with the Israeli Roads Authority, learns that he is in the early stages of dementia. His neurologist advises Zvi and his wife, Dina, the head of a pediatric clinic, that the best way to slow down the disease is that Zvi "must not run away from life, but on the contrary seek it out."
Dina comes up with an idea: Zvi will become the unpaid, part-time, assistant to a young engineer at the Roads Authority, Asael Maimoni, in planning a secret army road through the northern Negev Desert.
There's just one problem: Asael doesn't want to select the most efficient route, because that would require razing a small hill. And he's helping to hide three Palestinian refugees who are living in ancient ruins on the top of the hill.

"The Tunnel" embraces a couple dozen fully drawn characters, main and supporting, quirky yet believable, and Yehoshua skillfully semi-unravels their complicated relationships. (You wouldn't want the relationships to be fully unraveled.) For instance, it's clear that Zvi and Dina deeply love each other, even while he admits to some lingering attraction to two other women. Zvi and Asael have a different sort of love-frustration relationship, somewhat father-son, somewhat colleagues, taking turns relying on each other.

Another of Yehoshua's great talents is the way he interweaves brief but sharp insights about Israel into passing sentences. A Jewish volunteer group drives Palestinian patients every day from border checkpoints to hospitals in Israeli. The Palestinians dress up in party dresses for the girls, suits and ties for the men, in hopes that they'll be treated better that way.
An ailing Palestinian man takes Zvi to the roof of the hospital where Dina works, to point out that, yes, it's possible to see the Jordan River and the man's village from this Tel Aviv rooftop. The two sets of people, Jews and Palestinians, are that close. Geographically.

My main complaints may be more in the unfair vein of "but I would have written it differently..." After the blunt opening, the book takes its time finally getting to the supposed plot tension, the road-building dilemma. Meanwhile, Zvi is almost too casual about his diagnosis and future. He makes small mistakes, but there are no serious consequences, even when he gives what I thought was an inappropriate speech at a colleague's retirement dinner. He seems more worried that people will look down on him, rather than terrified at what he will lose.

Yehoshua has a unique, almost Homeric writing style, constantly switching from proper names to Homeric "tags" -- "the retired engineer" "the pensioner" "the unpaid assistant." I suppose some readers may hate and others enjoy. I simply accept it. It's charming, in a way. And certainly part of the unique, amazing, deeply drawn world of a novel by A.B. Yehoshua.

[Gauss74 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Passano gli anni per Abraham Yehoshua, ed inevitabilmente la sua (grandissima) scrittura comincia ad occuparsi del declino, della senilità. Con questo "Il tunnel" si guarda dritto per dritto nel volto della demenza senile, del dover dire addio alla vita molto prima della morte corporale e, che è peggio,in piena consapevolezza di questo.

Il protagonista si chiama Zvi Luria ed è una autentica colonna della società dello stato di Israele. Ingegnere stradale, per trent'anni e più ha dato un contributo decisivo alla nascita delle infrastrutture del nuovo stato; amorevole padre di famiglia e devotissimo marito, giunto alla pensione scopre di soffrire di una rara e micidiale forma di demenza progressiva che lo porterà, lui sempre padrone di se stesso, a dipendere da chi gli sta vicino in tutto.

Ci vuole tuttala maestria del grande scrittore di Haifa per riuscire a raccontare con delicatezza, in modo estremamente realistico il lentissimo, graduale ma irreversibile peggioramento di Zvi. Si comincia con il comprare due volte i pomodori e col dimenticare il nome delle persone, si prosegue sbagliando il bambino da andare a prendere a scuola per arrivare a dimenticare l'indirizzo della propria casa, il proprio stesso nome. Quello che davvero colpisce è la grande naturalezza con cui il peggioramento della malattia viene reso. Il lettore si accorge all'improvviso con molte righe di ritardo delle follie che il povero ingegnere di Tel Aviv commette suo malgrado, quasi che fossimo un po' malati anche noi, e non è detto che Yehoshua non lo faccia apposta, come se volesse renderci almeno in parte partecipi dell'esperienza della malattia mentale.

Non è solo un libro sulla decadenza e la malattia legate alla terza età. In "Il tunnel" ci sono pagine meravigliose che raccontano l'amore e la sessualità negli anziani. Tra un uomo ed una donna che per una vita intera sono stati vicini, si conoscono fino in fondo e si incontrano comunque in rapporti che forzatamente di attrazione fisica hanno molto poco ma che di affetto ed amore ne hanno davvero tanto, forse molto di più di quanto una relazione giovanile potrà mai avere. C'è solidità, robustezza, consapevolezza nell'amore tra Zvi e sua moglie Dinah.

Ma cosa è dunque questo tunnel che da titolo al libro? Sicuramente il tunnel della malattia che ha già condannato Zvi, ma adesso fa da contraltare la costruzione di un tunnel che perfora una collina nel deserto del Neghev, una tipica opera di ingegneria civile per la quale Zvi, dall'alto della sua esperienza, farà da consulente. E' l'occasione che Abraham Yehoshua coglie per raccontare gli intrighi politici e gli interessi personali che nello stato di Israele (e in Italia? Meglio non parlarne) si nascondono dietro ogni opera pubblica. Che ruolo ha avuto nella costruzione di un tunnel che tecnicamente è una spesa inutile la bellezza di una ragazza giovane che vedrebbe la sua casa distrutta dallo spianamento della collina come alternativa al tunnel stesso? Che ruolo ha avuto la triste sorte che incontrerebbe la famiglia di quella ragazza, palestinesi apolidi rimasti senza patria a causa della barriera e delle incomprensioni tra ebrei e palestinesi che nonostante tutto continuano ancora oggi?

Abraham Yehoshua non è Amos Oz, e nemmeno Susan Abulhawa. Il vecchio di Haifa mal sopporta le necessarie semplificazioni e le drammatizzazioni che spesso accompagnano i racconti dei conflitti e delle guerre. Egli non può rinunciare alla profonda umanità dei suoi personaggi, non si piegherà alla logica del "noi e loro". Le motivazioni nascoste le gate a quel tunnel sono illegali, certo, ma si dispiegano agli occhi del lettore con una umanità meravigliosa, che mai ha caratterizzato i racconti del conflitto israelo palestinese che si trovano nei libri di Abulhawa, per esempio.

Inutile dirlo, "Il Tunnel" è stato scritto con uan maestria ed un culto della parola assoluti, soprattutto perchè il racconto della demenza umana deve essere difficilissimo da scrivere: pure, in alcuni punti mi sono annoiato. Il ritmo è davvero troppo lento. Naturalmente ( eprobabilmente) tale ritmo è doveroso in un romanzo che parla della terza età, tuttavia non sono riuscito a non essere infastidito. Forse, se avessi letto "Il tunnel" tra vent'anni, la mia valutazione sarebbe stata molto diversa.

[Tzipora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh, it’s been too long since I’ve read some Israeli fiction. It’s one of my favorite things and this book, like so many like it has a certain Israeli sensibility to it. It’s a little bit absurdist and full of dark humor with interesting little quips on life as well as the occasional nod to the the strangeness of inhabiting that particular and complex strip of land.

I enjoyed this. Especially towards the end when I finally got to see where it was going. It’s a ride, somewhat unexpected even when I was far into it. I didn’t know how it was going to end even when I was two pages away from the last and that really upped my enjoyment and final thoughts on this one. I’ve read other Yehoshua, enjoyed some and was more meh on others. This one was great though, and a wholly unique storyline.

Zvi Luria is a retired engineer in his 70’s who is diagnosed with a progressive dementia at the start of the book. His doctor believes it’s important to stay in good spirits and recommends a return to work. Having retired from Israel Roads, where he designed and worked on the highway system, he attends a retirement party for a former colleague and stumbles upon Asael Maimoni, son of another former employee and the man now working his former job. Zvi’s wife Dina helps nudge him into a volunteer part time consulting position with Maimoni on a secret military road inside the Ramon crater. Living inside this route is a mysterious Palestinian family and a wild plot to build a tunnel to protect them. And from here things spiral out in unpredictable ways.

This one is an allegory in many regards that to explain would be a spoiler but there is the surface level story with all its twist and turns and then a secondary more theoretical, symbolic story happening. A.B Yehoshua is himself now 83 and it’s rather unique to be reading about an aged protagonist, especially one dealing with dementia. How this gets handled is distinctly Israeli and certainly unlike any other story you’ve encountered around dementia or aging.

Zvi is an absolute character, unforgettable, stubborn, someone who felt very real to me. We exist inside his thoughts, even when they veer to some bizarre corners, and I couldn’t speak to how realistic or not that is but I enjoyed the ride and am left with a bit of a book hangover. I miss Zvi and several of the other characters.

I enjoyed this one mightily and look forward to discussing it with anyone else who ends up picking this one up. I’ve got more works by Yehoshua on my shelf I hope to pick up soon as well. COVID kept me from a long yearned for extended Israel trip and who knows when I’ll finally get my chance but thank G-d for fantastic Israeli literature! If you’re a fan of it as well, I definitely recommend picking this one up.

[Annalisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A distanza di oltre un mese ripenso a questa lettura con un senso di tenerezza, e rifletto sulla traccia che ha lasciato in me, più duratura e indelebile di quanto avevo immaginato; probabilmente dovrei portare le stelline a quattro! Il protagonista tenta di reagire ai segnali della malattia, al declino con una dose sapiente di ironia e di tenacia; sullo sfondo il mondo diviso di Israele, le grandi contraddizioni, le grandi domande a cui il lettore deve dare risposta. Non il testo di Yehoshua che più mi ha convinto ma comunque una bella lettura.

[David Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dementia is the grey thread that stitches the story of a retired engineer’s challenge to manage the impact of his atrophy, immersed in the anxiety of his family and in the company of friends and colleagues. The narrative seamlessly draws together subplots and layers, touching the deep fault-line that crosses an ancient land dividing two peoples – Israelis and Palestinians.
A. B. Yehoshua, the Master craftsman uses ‘grey humour’, not black, to portray the protagonist’s playful composure and creative energy to embrace his growing demise.

To accompany Lucia, the celebrated engineer on his mission to create a secret tunnel in the Negev desert is a joy-ride of unexpected proportions. The romp from one end of Israel to the other had me often chuckling and laughing out loud, admiring the storyteller’s skill as he highlights and weaves the vulnerabilities of his characters with sensitivity and respect.

The allegory of ‘the tunnel’ in a land laden with ‘memory’ explores the identity and complexity of a ‘homeless people’ in a climate of national atrophy. Yet, ‘the tunnel’ provides hope.

I loved this rich, witty, humanitarian tale – maybe a fable; open-ended, full of hope and despair; love and longing, and hungering more from this writer.

[Lili Bammens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mooi, grappig en ook ontroerend boek over ouder worden en de bijbehorende kwalen, in het bijzonder dementie, en over de liefde van een ouder echtpaar.
In de 2e plaats gaat het volgens mij ook over de politiek van Israël maar dan minder uitgesproken, hoewel het boek de titel "De tunnel" draagt en deze tunnel en bijbehorende weg wel een politiek doel hebben.
Wat mij in het bijzonder trof was de open manier waarin met (beginnende) dementie wordt omgegaan, niet pamperend en bedekt maar liefdevol, open en zelfs met humor. Zo kan het dus ook.
Ik had nog nooit iets van deze 84-jarige auteur gelezen maar ik ga dat zeker inhalen.

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slowly he is deteriorating and the verdict is clear: dementia. Zvi Luria, former road engineer, struggles with the diagnosis and the effects of the illness: increasingly, he is forgetting first names and once he could only be stopped at the last moment from picking up another boy than his grandchild from kindergarten. When he is invited to a farewell party of a former colleague, he visits his old office where he stumbles upon Asael Maimoni, the son of his last legal adviser, who is now occupying his post. Luria’s wife thinks it would be a good idea to get her husband’s brain filled with work again and thus he becomes Maimoni’s unpaid assistant in planning a tunnel in the Negev desert. When working on the road, he not only profits from his many years of experience that he can successfully use despite his slowly weakening memory, but he also learns a lot about his own country and the people he never tried to really get to know.

Yehoshua is one of the best known contemporary Israeli writers and professor of Hebrew Literature. He has been awarded numerous prizes for his work and his novels have been translated into many languages. Over and over again, Israel’s politics and the Jewish identity have been central in his works and this also plays an important part in his latest novel.

“The tunnel” addresses several discussion worthy topics. First of all, quite obviously, Luria’s dementia, what it does to him and how the old man and his surroundings cope with it. In an ageing society, this is something we all have come across and it surely isn’t an easy illness to get by since, on the one hand, physically, the people affected are totally healthy, but, on the other hand, the loss of memory gradually makes them lose independence and living with them becomes more challenging. If, like Luria, they are aware of the problems, this can especially hard if they had an intellectually demanding professional life and now experience themselves degraded to a child.

The second noteworthy aspect is the road-building which is quickly connected to the core Israeli question of how they treat non-Jewish residents and their culture. Not only an Arab family in hiding, due to a failed attempt to help them by a former commanding officer of the forces, opens Luria’s eyes on what is going on at the border clandestinely but with good intentions, but he also witnesses how officials treat the nomad tribe of Nabateans and their holy sites.

On a more personal level, the novel also touches questions of guilt and bad conscience as well as the possibility of changing your mind and behaviour even at an older age.

Wonderfully narrated with an interesting and loveable protagonist, it was a great joy to read this novel that I can highly recommend.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book very much indeed. It's gentility was mesmerising and the writing and translation from Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman is superb.

For my full review please visit my blog at: https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp...

[Elazar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful book, laced with a fine sense of humor intertwined with Yehoshua's iconic/unique writing style. Worth reading.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first tried to read this book, I was unable to do so, as the subject hit too close to home. My dear sister-in-law had suffered from dementia for several years and had just died. A year-plus later, I was able to finally pick The Tunnel back up and I’m glad I did.

Zvi Luria, a retired Israeli road engineer, is slowly losing part of his mind. One of the first things to go for him is first names. By the end of the book, he has trouble remembering his own first name. This story follows along with some road-building-related adventures, and includes an unusual meeting/relationship with an undocumented Palestinian family hiding in the Negev desert, whose story is pretty convoluted. But to me the heart of the story was Zvi’s relationship with his wife of many years, Dina, and how they cope with his decline. Since the author is even older than his protagonists, I felt the writing was realistic and very sympathetic.

Along with the sense of sadness due to Zvi’s increasing confusion, there are many funny moments, such as the scene at the opera. There was one instance that I found disturbing. Zvi gets the 4-digit ignition code for his car ignitions tattooed on his arm, in case he forgets it. For me, this recalled the tattooed numbers on the arms of those in Nazi concentration camps and I found it hard to believe that someone Jewish would even consider doing such a thing.

Without giving away too much, for me the ending, while symbolic, was weird (the name Zvi means deer in Hebrew).

The English translation from Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman felt very natural.

While I received the eARC from NetGalley, I wound up bouncing between the eARC and the published audiobook by HMH Adult Audio. The narrator, Rick Zieff, did an excellent job with the voices. Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 Stars: A. B. Yehoshua is among the last of this generation of Israeli writers. His large body of work has been translated into twenty-eight languages and adapted for film and opera. The New York Times called him the "Israeli Faulkner." He has received the Israel Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize and the Man Booker International Prize, among other honors. The Tunnel is his latest work to be translated into English so it naturally piqued my interest. The audiobook narrator was excellent and I fell in love with the characters of Zvi Luria, a retired road engineer who was suffering from dementia, and his pediatrician wife Dina. I was tempted to turn the book off and give up several times - it just didn't grab me - but my curiosity got the best of me and I stuck it out until the end. However, I didn't get it. I have so many questions still and I'm not sure if Yehoshua meant them to be left unanswered or it I just missed something.

[alessandra falca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per iniziare a leggere Yehoshua inizio dal suo ultimo libro fra i tanti da lui scritti e non rimango delusa. Grande scrittore Yehoshua. Lo si capisce dai dialoghi. Dalla profondità. Dalla politica, dai dubbi. Bel libro. Quando mi imbatterò in un altro suo libro non esiterò a leggerlo.

[Hannah Rosenthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

נהניתי לקרוא וגם להקשיב. זיו זוהר מאיר מספר יוצלח. אהבתי את היחסים של לוריא ואשתו, אהבתי את ההומור. א. ב. יהושע סופר מחונן שמצליח לכתוב בקלילות על מצבים טראגיים שטיון וזקנה.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh...forced myself to actually finish this. I can’t explain the idea of the book because there was nothing but Luria’s dementia that made any sense at all. Everything else was just banter.

[incipit mania]

Incipit
– Allora, ricapitolando, – dice il neurologo.
Continua su Incipitmania

[Dexter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always interested in memory loss stories and this one was interesting due to the slowly increasing memory loss due to dementia. But other than that, I found the plot and the rest of the story a bit wanting.

[Michael Rieman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zvi Luria's discovery of a mild atrophy on a brain scan sets this interesting novel in motion. Luria has been having episodes of forgetting first names and even, at one time, picking up the wrong child when he went to pick up his grandchild after school. The neurologist concluded that Luria, a retired engineer who had worked for Israel Roads, was experiencing a very early stage of a form of "dementia," which Luria and his wife would have to consider while still living active lives. Yehoshua has created an involving work dealing with a topic that is relevant to many people who are aging or dealing with someone facing the problems of aging. Moreover, in creating a fully realized character in Zvi Luria, the author has been able to approach this situation with compassion and even humor. We understand that Luria's career had been a successful one in which he had designed several important roads, tunnels, and interchanges, and that he has retained those skills in retirement, regardless of the changes in the brain scan. He has a loving relationship with his wife and adult children, relationships either presented directly in the text, or suggested by it. Luria is a man who had separated work relationships from personal ones as a means of working more effectively, but he increasingly understands the importance of such personal relationships when he takes on the role of an unpaid assistant to a young man planning a road in the Negev for an unstated military purpose. Urged to take on this task by his wife, Luria travels into relatively unfamiliar territory around the Ramon Crater, and learns from the young engineer,Maimoni, that there would be a problem if army engineers were to level a hill to permit a straight road: there is a Palestinian family without identity cards living there. The engineer wants to protect these people, as does a mysterious retired Israeli army officer named Shibboleth. Luria suggests and designs a tunnel through the hill; he also finds himself fascinated by the Palestinian man living on the hill and especially the man's daughter whose relationships with both the young engineer and the retired military man are not clear. It is a mark of Yehoshua's skill as a storyteller that he is so well able to blend these relationships with the central one of Luria's own relationship with his pediatrician wife. Luria's condition does not abate, but neither does it keep him from making a compelling case for his tunnel. In fact, one of the strengths of the narrative is in the way Luria can stand up for himself. Deprived of his driver's license because of a strange error in his judgment on a road, Luria still finds a way to take a surprising road trip back to the Crater and in a stunning conclusion which may or may not be completely real, is able to return to the stone building on the hill in which the Palestinians live secretly.
Since we see several characters only through Luria's eyes,we have to fill out quite a number of unanswered questions about them. That may well have been Yehoshua's intent, but I do think I was intrigued enough to want to know just a little more about them.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read and enjoyed previous novels by Yehoshua. The cultural lore and the backdrop of Israel and its people are very interesting to me. However, I felt something was missing for me in this book. Perhaps it was all the focus on road engineering, a subject I have no interest in. I wanted to read the novel because of my interest in the protagonist's dementia but this aspect of the book takes second chair to the engineering part.

Zvi Luria is a retired road engineer who has been having trouble remembering first names., days of the week and his car ignition code. His family has noticed his forgetfulness and his wife takes him to a neurologist who finds that a small part of Zvi's brain is atrophied. This indicates dementia and cognitive decline but there is no telling how fast it will progress.

Zvi''s wife, a pediatrician, wants Zvi to stay active and engaged in life, a recommendation seconded by the neurologist. She helps him get a job as an unpaid assistant to a road engineer who is in charge of building a road in a crater in the Negev Desert. This is considered a covert military operation. What Zvi didn't bank on was the family of Palestinian nomads living in the crater under the protection of Shibbolet, an archeological anthropologist.

I was most interested in the family dynamics of this novel, especially the tender and loving relationship between Zvi and his wife. They are portrayed as a dedicated and caring couple, still passionate after decades of marriage.

Yehoshua writes well but, like all books, I have to be able to relate to the narrative and the topics. Unfortunately, I could not make myself care about the building of this road and the engineering aspects of turn-outs, curves or tunnels. The problem is likely with me more than with the book. Perhaps if I'd started it six months ago or six months from now, I'd have had a more positive impression.

[Kathleen Hulser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing Yehoshua is still writing at age 83. This charming tale centers on a retiree who learns that little black spot on the cerebral cortex is beginning of dementia. And he proceeds to fulfill the prophecy but in a way that reveals the importance of identity in all its forms. A stateless person/Palestinian lacks a card, and a name; the hero Zvi Luria forgets his car password and soon his own first name; a country forgets its roots in a Ben-Gurion who once thought Arabs were actually Jews who converted over the centuries as the dominant religion changed in the Middle East.

At one point, Ayala//Hanadi the girl without a passport tells Luria he has the "good dementia." He succeeds in saving a Nabatean archeological site by routing a secret road for the Israeli Army under a hill, rather than letting the bulldozers smash it down to make way. The retired engineer accomplishes this through elaborate plot maneuvers, significantly aided by his dementia in the bureaucratic end game. Unlikely allies pop up as supporting cast drawn from a variety of sectors and classes.

As always Yehoshua writes friendly, human-scaled stories of people who transcend the facile categorization of rabid nationalist Israeli and Palestinian intransigent. The politics suffuse daily life but people make small accommodations to fill the gap between official policy and their own perceptions of the dignity and worth of all.

[Elazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tunnel provides interesting windows into the lives of Israeli state employees and pensioners, people with dementia, and a snapshot of Israeli sociopolitics. The trajectory of the plot is a bit rough, but the same could be said of life with dementia.

I know enough Hebrew to know that I missed some nuance by reading (listening to) it in English. I think some of the references were a bit kitschy. And some of the action seemed abrupt especially toward the end.

I was happy to find that my library had an Israeli novel on Hoopla, no doubt because of the book’s support of Palestinians. Nevertheless an Israeli novel and worth the read.

[Galia · Rating 5 out of 5]

האהבה בין צבי לגינה אישתו השזורה לכל אורך הסיפור, עדינה, עמוקה ומרגשת.