The Fig Tree

by Arnold Zable

From the best-selling author of Cafe Scheherazade comes this tender book of haunting true stories, filled with memorable people. Zable writes about his own and his wife's family in Australia and Europe, about the lives of Jewish and Greek immigrants to Australia, about refugees and wanderers, actors, singers and poets.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Short Stories

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Zable was born on 10 January 1947 in Wellington, New Zealand to Polish-Jewish refugee parents. They moved early in his life to Australia and he grew up in Carlton, Victoria.

Zable is known as a storyteller - through his memoirs, short stories and novels. Australian critic Susan Varga says that Zable's award-winning memoir, Jewels and Ashes, "was a ground-breaking book in Australia, one of the first of what has since become a distinct auto/biographical genre: a second-generation writer returns to the scene of unspeakable crimes to try to understand a fraught and complex legacy, and, in so doing, embarks on a journey into the self.

In an interview Zable explained that the rights and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers underpins his work:

"The current generation of refugees are experiencing the intense challenges faced by previous generations. We tend to forget, or fail to imagine, how difficult it is to start life anew far from the homeland. We forget also that nostalgia, the longing for the return to homeland, is a deep and enduring aspect of the refugee experience."

In the same interview he said about his language that "I am drawn to the quirky sayings and observations that define a person or a culture".

Reviews

[Dionne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zable poetically recalls memories from childhood and takes the reader on a journey through the unsettled and, at times, tragic past of his and his wife's family. The story travels from suburban Melbourne (Australia) to Europe. The nostalgia and yearning for another place and time is palpable. He describes the migrant experience in a poetic and relatable way. Zable has a great empathy and shares it with the reader in the hopes of showing us we are all the same. Humans share emotions, yearning, love and the wish to live a peaceful, meaningful life. I really loved reading this book and recommend it to anyone who loves memoir.

[Gemma Wiseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fig Tree spins the unsung stories of Jewish people. The stories may initially centre in 1930's -1950's Carlton, Melbourne, the author's home base now, but they fan out to connections with Poland, Greece, Russia, Thessaloniki and Austria. There's a mother's story, a father's, a poet's story and the story of lovers - to name a few. Each one symbolises a picture of yearning, a limbo, a feeling that home is a question still waiting for an answer. Maintaining some semblance of allegiance to old values and adapting to new ones becomes a tension, a struggle and a hope to reach some kind of balance. Zable offers perspectives from a range of age groups. Each one has its own unique narrative, strength and view of life. The result is an intriguing insight into the life of wanderers, shunted out of their own worlds, by such as the Holocaust, and seeking a sense of place and value.

MY POETIC REVIEW: Songlines on the Winds

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely meditation on life and family from one of our most wonderful storytellers.

[Helen Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such and insight into people living in a new place and their relationship with the country of their ancestors.

[Sadie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I am a keen genealogist, I thought I would really enjoy this book. But I didn't. It is descriptively written, but really quite boring. The stories of the family ties weren't deep enough for me.