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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Yael Dayan, novelist daughter of the legendary Moshe Dayan and? a public figure with a long and illustrious political career behind her, looks back at her life, scrutinizing it without illusions. Once a desirable, free-spirited young woman and a successful author, she lived with the sense that she held the world in the palm of her hand. And the world adulated both her and the young state she came from. She was an officer in the Israel Defense Force, the daughter of a renowned general, a successful writer—Death Had Two Sons, A Soldier's Diary: Sinai 1967—much in demand on the lecture tour, and a star of the gossip columns. Now in her 70s, she admits with touching honesty to missing both the vibrant 20-something she was, and the sober woman she became—a fierce political activist and parliamentarian for the left, a fighter for justice, women's rights and peace. Having resigned her last public position, she must reconcile herself to being a mentor, a participant instead of a leader, yet remaining center-stage on the Peace Camp scene. The narrator's warm, intimate voice and her rich intellect, as well as her insights, make for a powerful reading experience.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dayan, the daughter of Israeli general Moshe Dayan, is an author, politician, and social activist who lived most of her life in the public eye. This introspective and moving memoir, written more than three decades after her 1985 biography, My Father, His Daughter, has a very different perspective from the earlier book. At 74, she wrestles with changes in her life. The former parliamentarian and leader on the Tel Aviv city council writes as a widow coming to terms with fragile, deteriorating health and its imposed loneliness. She laments the loss of her life as a young, attractive woman, but readers should not expect a tell-all. She revisits past love affairs in memories but keeps them sealed in a "locked room." The core chapters describe her late husband's lengthy illness with Parkinson's disease and its effect on her and her family until his death in 2003. She finds solace in the intrinsic beauty of her immediate environment and time spent with her grandchildren. Many readers will relate to her struggles with mortality and loss. There is much here that is distinctly Dayan, including her renewed determination to fight for her life, social ideals, and politics after her brother's death in 2014.
