Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Waking Lions
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Review by Priscilla Comen
Waking Lions
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Review by Priscilla Comen
Waking Lions is by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen who was born in Israel and has an MA from Tel Aviv University. A doctor, Eitan, drives at top speed along the highway at night, singing along with Janis Joplin at the top of his voice. He has just worked an exhausting shift as a neurosurgeon. He doesn’t see the black man walking on the road. He hits him and, seeing he is about to die, drives off. This is the stunning beginning of this intense story.
Eitan’s wife, Liat, is a police officer, a beautiful woman, and the mother of their two boys. Eitan constantly feels guilty at having driven away in his car. When the widow of the downed man comes to see Eitan with his wallet, she demands that he go to a garage in the black neighborhood to treat Eritreans who suffer from all kinds of disastrous diseases. He does this nightly and his wife wonders where he goes. Eitan finds lying to her gets easier each time. He hates this woman, Sirkit, until he sees her perform an operation she had learned by watching him every night. Eitan feels a new respect for this black woman. But he hates her for her control over him. He goes to the clinic to steal medicines to cure or ease the diseases of the night people who come to the garage.
Liat is now the officer in charge of the hit and run case. A young boy has confessed to the crime, but Liat wants a witness to corroborate his story. She doesn’t believe his confession. She goes to his Bedouin village to find who had been with him in the car. A young girl steps forward. Author Gundar-Goshen explores the moral issues with the three main characters. Each in her/his own words. She tenderly and deftly defines the prejudices against the Bedouins and the Eritrean history. Author talks of the two paths one can take at an intersection: one toward good, one toward evil.
Is Eitan falling for Sirkit? Is she for him? What does his wife suspect? The restaurant where Sirkit works is owned by Davidson. He’s a bored man who rapes a woman in the store room and deals drugs. When he finds the operating room in the garage, he is furious that he has been made a fool. Sirkit grows beautiful roses outside her rusty trailer where she lives. Everyone in this story has a secret. Find out about them on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
Eitan’s wife, Liat, is a police officer, a beautiful woman, and the mother of their two boys. Eitan constantly feels guilty at having driven away in his car. When the widow of the downed man comes to see Eitan with his wallet, she demands that he go to a garage in the black neighborhood to treat Eritreans who suffer from all kinds of disastrous diseases. He does this nightly and his wife wonders where he goes. Eitan finds lying to her gets easier each time. He hates this woman, Sirkit, until he sees her perform an operation she had learned by watching him every night. Eitan feels a new respect for this black woman. But he hates her for her control over him. He goes to the clinic to steal medicines to cure or ease the diseases of the night people who come to the garage.
Liat is now the officer in charge of the hit and run case. A young boy has confessed to the crime, but Liat wants a witness to corroborate his story. She doesn’t believe his confession. She goes to his Bedouin village to find who had been with him in the car. A young girl steps forward. Author Gundar-Goshen explores the moral issues with the three main characters. Each in her/his own words. She tenderly and deftly defines the prejudices against the Bedouins and the Eritrean history. Author talks of the two paths one can take at an intersection: one toward good, one toward evil.
Is Eitan falling for Sirkit? Is she for him? What does his wife suspect? The restaurant where Sirkit works is owned by Davidson. He’s a bored man who rapes a woman in the store room and deals drugs. When he finds the operating room in the garage, he is furious that he has been made a fool. Sirkit grows beautiful roses outside her rusty trailer where she lives. Everyone in this story has a secret. Find out about them on the new fiction shelf of your community library.