To The End of the Land: David Grossman

Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is about to celebrate her son Ofer`s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. Instead of waiting at home for the `notifiers` who could arrive at any moment to tell her of her son`s fate, she sets off for a hike in Galilee, leaving no forwarding address. If a mother is not there to receive the news, a son cannot die, can he?

Recently estranged from her husband, Ora drags along an unlikely companion: their former best friend and her former lover Avram, the man who in fact turns out to be her son`s biological father. As they sleep out in the hills, ford rivers and cross valleys, Ora recounts, step by step and word by word, the story of her son`s birth, life and possible death, in one mother`s magical, passionate and heartbreaking attempt to keep her son safe from harm.