Khirbet Khizeh

A Modern Hebrew Masterpiece: A Heartbreaking Tale of Conscience and Conflict

"Exhilarating . . . How often can you say about a harrowing, unquiet book that it makes you wrestle with your soul?" —Neel Mukherjee, The Times (London)

It's 1948 and the Arab villagers of Khirbet Khizeh are about to be violently expelled from their homes. A young Israeli soldier on duty that day finds himself battling on two fronts: with the villagers and, ultimately, with his own conscience.

Published just months after the founding of the state of Israel and the end of the 1948 war, the novella Khirbet Khizeh was an immediate sensation when it first appeared. The book has continued to challenge and disturb readers, even finding its way onto the school curriculum in Israel. The various debates it has prompted would themselves make Khirbet Khizeh worth reading, but the novella is much more than a vital historical document: it is also a great work of art.

Yizhar's haunting, lyrical style and charged view of the landscape are as startling as his wrenchingly honest portrayal of modern Israel's primal scene. Considered a modern Hebrew masterpiece, Khirbet Khizeh is an extraordinary and heartbreaking book that is destined to be a classic of world literature. A must-read for fans of literary fiction and Jewish literature.