
All the Rivers
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
About this listen
A controversial, award-winning story about the passionate but untenable affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, from one of Israel's most acclaimed novelists.
When Liat meets Hilmi on a blustery autumn afternoon in Greenwich Village, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Charismatic and handsome, Hilmi is a talented young artist from Palestine. Liat, an aspiring translation student, plans to return to Israel the following summer. Despite knowing that their love can be only temporary, that it can exist only away from their conflicted homeland, Liat lets herself be enraptured by Hilmi - by his lively imagination, by his beautiful hands and wise eyes, by his sweetness and devotion.
Together they explore the city, sharing laughs and fantasies and pangs of homesickness. But the unfettered joy they awaken in each other cannot overcome the guilt Liat feels for hiding him from her family in Israel and her Jewish friends in New York. As her departure date looms and her love for Hilmi deepens, Liat must decide whether she is willing to risk alienating her family, her community, and her sense of self for the love of one man.
Banned from classrooms by Israel's Ministry of Education, Dorit Rabinyan's remarkable novel contains multitudes. A bold portrayal of the strains - and delights - of a forbidden relationship, All the Rivers (published in Israel as Borderlife) is a love story and a war story, a New York story and a Middle East story, an unflinching foray into the forces that bind us and divide us. "The land is the same land," Hilmi reminds Liat. "In the end all the rivers flow into the same sea."
©2017 Dorit Rabinyan (P)2017 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Too easy
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The descriptions of NYC and a divided Israel were perfect
The suspense and conclusion were riveting!!!
A perfect book and a perfect performance
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Very touching love story between an Israeli and a Palestinian.
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Excellent, moving story
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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
YesWould you be willing to try another book from Dorit Rabinyan? Why or why not?
YesWhat does Gabra Zackman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Excellent narration albeit some fine-tuning errors with accents.Was All the Rivers worth the listening time?
YesAny additional comments?
A fine etching in a place and time which brings a Palestinian NYC based artist and an Israeli women into a complex relationship of deep love and attraction and stark difference in national identity. Doomed to failure due to the cultural, national and religious schisms a kind of slow motion intensity pervades. Excellently written with some crafting errors creating a few too many metaphorical references and a problematic ending whereby the author (spoiler alert from here onwards), rather that work through the issues and take it to its ultimate problematic end (or rebirth) she kills the hero off thereby exhibiting the exact critique of Israeli society she so scrupulously adheres to.Worth the read and the dissonance it generates far from the comfort zone.Irreconcilable
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Thrilling and beautiful
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Beautiful story
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Left disappointed.
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What I didn’t like was the ending—Hilmi drowning, but it definitely showed the humanistic side of Hilmi!
Reality
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Outstanding contemporary literary realism.
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