Evacuation

Translated by Penny Hueston

Naor, a young filmmaker, is driving with his mother. He tells her about being in Tel Aviv after a recent evacuation. Everyone else has fled, except for Naor and Yaël, his artist girlfriend, and Saba, his grandfather, who is a writer. The occasional missile explodes nearby. But Saba refuses to leave the place he loves. And Yaël has her own secret aspirations.

In defiance of the war, they scavenge an existence and explore the mysteries of their beloved city—until the unthinkable happens. In Evacuation, a novel of suspense, a profound tale about our choices under pressure, about love, for each other and for a place, about death, and about finding a way to peace, Raphaël Jerusalmy is at the height of his powers.

‘In this marvellous book, Raphäel Jerusalmy shows us that, despite the destructive madness of men, a few beautiful spirits, angel-poets, will always remain.’—Le Monde

‘An elegant examination of the choices we make and the individual peace we seek…Evacuation is a short but meaningful voyage of discovery, an Israeli road trip packed with musings on war, love, death, and art.'—AU Review

‘Like the famous photograph of the string quartet amid the ruins of Sarajevo, his [Jerusalmy’s] book celebrates the persistence of art in times of chaos, and like another recent novella of the Middle East, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, it combines a jolting realism with the timeless quality of fables.'—The Age