The Debba

by Avner Mandelman Narrated by George Guidall

Overview

Pushcart Prize winner Avner Mandelman was the inaugural recipient of the Sophie Brody Medal for outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. In The Debba, David Starkman leaves Canada and returns to Israel after his war hero father, Isser, is murdered. Once there, David learns of an unusual request in his father's will. Isser had long-ago written a controversial play about the Debba, a mythical hyena and heroic symbol of the Arabs. It was performed once, causing a riot. Now, Isser's will insists it be staged again. "The author deftly blends a murder mystery with a nuanced examination of the intransigent Israeli-Arab conflict."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Sharp, biting prose distinguishes this first novel from Israeli author Mandelman (Talking to the Enemy, a story collection). In 1977, David Starkman returns from selfimposed exile in Canada to his native Israel after learning of the murder of his warhero father, Isser, the owner of a shoe shore. The killer stabbed Isser in the heart with one of Isser's own knives, then mutilated his body. Isser's will includes an unusual provision--that within 45 days, a controversial play he'd written, The Debba, whose title refers to "an enigmatic Arab hyena that can walk like a man" and which had only been performed once, three decades earlier, be staged. David, who once belonged to an elite Israeli army unit responsible for carrying out targeted assassinations in "times of non-war," decides to stick around to fulfill his father's request, despite opposition from those who believe the play is subversive. The author deftly blends a murder mystery with a nuanced examination of the intransigent Israeli-Arab conflict. (July)

From the Publisher

In this fast-paced thriller, the philosophical wrestling matches the action blow for blow.”—Hadassah Magazine

“Sharp, biting prose distinguishes this first novel from Israeli author Mandelman… The author deftly blends a murder mystery with a nuanced examination of the intransigent Israeli-Arab conflict.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An absorbing and captivating novel that bridges the uncomfortable political gap between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A first-rate debut novel that tackles current issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict while revealing the paradoxes of Israeli life for those who embrace the arts yet must deal with violence on a daily basis.” —Booklist, starred review

“…a literary thriller that powerfully confronts uncomfortable paradoxes around the founding of Israel. The issues it raises are as near as the headlines, and the novel seems likely to be as controversial as the play that forms its centerpiece.”—Library Journal

Library Journal

David Starkman, a disaffected Israeli expat, apprehensively returns from Canada in 1977 for the funeral of his father, a hero of the 1948 war who subsequently went back to shoemaking. His father has placed an unusual request in his will. In order to inherit the estate, David must stage a play his father wrote that was performed only once before in 1946. The play—based on Arab folklore about the Debba, a mythical hyena that can turn human and lure Jewish children from their families—caused a near-riot at the time and seems destined to do so again, with forces inside the government determined to stop the production at any cost. Carrying it through, David unearths many secrets regarding his birth and that of his native country.Verdict Mandelman, a veteran of the Six-Day War, has crafted a literary thriller that powerfully confronts uncomfortable paradoxes around the founding of Israel. The issues it raises are as near as the headlines, and the novel seems likely to be as controversial as the play that forms its centerpiece.—Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, North Andover, MA

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169941241
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	07/01/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

It was in Toronto in 1977, seven years after I had last seen him, that I learned of my father’s murder. When the phone rang I half expected to hear Aunt Rina’s voice, inviting me to the Passover seder. Instead I heard the line crackle and a faint voice said, “Starkman? David Starkman?”
In an instant I knew. “Ken?” I croaked in Hebrew—yes.
“This is Ya’akov Gelber. I am an attorney in Tel Aviv—”
“My father,” I said.
“I am afraid so.”             
   Perspiration broke out on my chin as Mr. Gelber said without preliminaries that my father had died. “You of course have my most profound sympathies,” he said in Hebrew, “but there are some…urgent matters to discuss, else I would not call you on the holiday.”
   It was only April but the Toronto weather was freakishly hot and my cheap one-room apartment on Spadina Avenue was baking in the heat. My sole white shirt, which I had put on for an evening out with Jenny, was soaking with sweat, as Jenny kept massaging my neck, the back of my head, the veins at my temples.  I again had a migraine after last night’s black dreams. It often hit me when evening fell, and so we rarely went out. I had hoped tonight would be better, but it wasn’t. I dabbed at my face with a dish towel and tried to concentrate on Mr. Gelber’s voice, which was explaining in my ear how someone had broken into my father’s shoe store the previous night while he was taking inventory, and following the robbery (an unsuccessful attempt, really, since nothing of value was taken), my father was stabbed in the heart with one of his own knives—the one used for cutting soles. “It was probably an Arab robber,” Mr. Gelber said, his voice neutral, “because the body was also mutilated.”

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