House on Endless Waters

'I read this book in excitement and wonder. It's not only a touching and fascinating book, but a sophisticated one as well.' Amos Oz Linda Yechiel's English translation is the winner of the 2023 Society of Authors' TLS-Risa Domb/Porjes Prize for Hebrew Translation Yoel has always known that his mother escaped the Nazis from Amsterdam. But it is not until after she has died that he finally visits the city of his birth. There, watching an old film clip at the Jewish Historical Museum, he sees a woman with a small child: it is his mother, but the child is not him. So begins a fervent search for the truth that becomes the subject of his magnum opus, revealing Amsterdam's dark wartime history and the underground networks which hid Jewish children away from danger - but at a cost. '[A] jewel box of a novel' - New York Times

About the Author :
Emuna Elon is an internationally bestselling Israeli novelist, journalist, teacher and women's activist, who currently lives in Jerusalem. Her first novel translated into English, If You Awaken Love, was a National Jewish Book Award finalist and House on Endless Waters has been optioned for TV/film adaptation. This novel was translated from its original Hebrew by the late Anthony Berris (1934-2018) and Linda Yechiel, a Canadian-born editor and translator based in Israel.

Review :
I read this book in excitement and wonder. It's not only a touching and fascinating book, but a sophisticated one as well. Emuna Elon's House on Endless Waters is a loving lament for the lost Jews of Amsterdam, for a mother's suffering under the Nazis and a son's sifting through her lifetime's silence to find himself. [...] One reading is not enough for Elon's multi-faceted, shifting-sands novel-within-a-novel: immerse yourself first in the author's all-too-haunting evocation of the wartime Dutch capital and the creeping awareness by young parents of inescapable tragedy to come. Begin again, to appreciate the lyrical subtlety with which she simultaneously and skilfully withholds. It is sensitive and beautifully written, its reality utterly convincing. I loved it. Emuna Elon has given us an elegant, eloquent novel - a story in which time and language melt to reveal truths that could be told in no other way. House on Endless Waters is at once an Escher print of a tale and devastatingly, inescapably real. House on Endless Waters is a haunting and lyrical meditation on who we are and where we come from, on how our past shapes our present and our art. Emuna Elon's gorgeously intricate novel is beautifully written and moving. In House on Endless Waters, Emuna Elon envelops her readers in an intricately woven and lushly layered world. With achingly exquisite, delicate prose, Elon explores the creative mind's power to reimagine a life and memory's power to recognize truth. An unforgettable read. [A] jewel box of a novel . . . Elon powerfully evokes the obscurity of the past and its hold on the present, as we stumble through revelation after revelation with Yoel. As we accompany him on his journey to recreate his history, we share in his loss, surprise and grief, right up to the novel's shocking conclusion. House on Endless Waters is extraordinary-a vibrant, page-turning family mystery that not only carries us deep into Amsterdam's little-explored wartime history, but into the fascinating, complex and often painful process by which history is crafted into story. In order to correctly appreciate the impressive work that Elon has produced, the book should be read more than once. The first reading - and the book is read with bated breath - will reveal the strength of the story, but in order to bare it fully, it should be examined like a complex work of art, from several aspects. This is a book that contains many meanings: the historical, the poetic, the artistic, the religious, the family-related and the existential; each reading will disclose new layers and secrets ... A masterpiece. Not only because of the descriptive power of the novel, and the precise, finely constructed plot; not only because of its vivid characters whose broken hearts tear at the hearts of the reader; not only because the historical past in it lives on into the present, but because all of these depict how the history that is read in books is a fragment of the broken heart of a human being in his or her everyday life. Done with a craftswoman's hand ...The seam between the mythological and the personal is sewn with a fine, silken, concealed narrative thread whose beauty lies in its delicacy, and it creates a sense of true catharsis in the reader's breast. A story of love, loss, and yearning...Lyrically phrased and often powerfully visual...this deeply felt tale offers a rewarding meditation on survival...Blurring the edges between history and fiction, this achingly mournful work impresses with its grave empathy. Readers will find Elon's lyrical prose haunting as she moves between past and present, constructing a heartbreaking, moving tale that brings understanding and acceptance. Emuna Elon's powerful House on Endless Waters is essential Jewish fictionElon's great power in The House on Endless Waters is to richly evoke both sides of the tragedy . . . House on Endless Waters is a deeply immersive achievement that brings to life stories that must never be forgotten. A beautifully eloquent family mystery highlighting human tragedy and resilience. HOUSE ON ENDLESS WATERS is part mystery, part historical fiction, and entirely captivating.