The Smile of the Lamb

by David Grossman

Jonathan Cape, 1991, [First Edition], ISBN 0224026399, hardcover, dust-jacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, ‘belongs to’ stamp to front end paper, dust-jacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing, creasing and wear (see photographs)

“The first Israeli work of literature to deal with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.  It tells the story of four people: Uri, an idealistic young Israeli soldier serving in an army unit on the occupied West Bank, a man who has found the seed of love in himself and is rash enough to use it to tilt against the injustice all about him; his wife Shosh, horrified by the suicide of a patient she ‘killed’ with love at the juvenile psychiatric institution where she works; Katzman, a cynical Israeli commander who needs both of them – the sweetness he has lost – but instead lives the ugly lie which is the core of his life; and Khilmi – an old Palestinian storyteller, embroidering kan-ya-ma-kan (once upon a time) tales beneath the terebinth tree, coming to terms with the death of Yazdi, the son he had saved for love, another young boy killed in the political struggle, ‘Yazdi who grew between Khilmi’s hands and flowed out between his fingers’.”