Calendar

Noa and Theo live in Tel Kedar, a quiet Israeli town in the Negev desert. After seven years of living together happily, their relationship has begun to stagnate. Theo, a successful urban planner, seems to have lost his energy, the will to act, to embark on new projects. Noa, a dynamic literature teacher in the local school, is fifteen years younger than Theo, and is always on the lookout for new goals and new challenges.
The story begins when they must face a difficult situation. After the death of a student of Noa’s (whether due to drugs or suicide is unclear), she is called on to oversee the founding of a new rehabilitation centre for young drug addicts. She does not want to be seen as weak, and so avoids asking Theo for help. If on one hand the situation seems to put their relationship to the test, on the other hand it shows how much affection, tenderness and love still binds them together.
The story is narrated by the two protagonists, who recount the same episodes, in alternating chapters, from two different points of view. Their contrasting personalities are evident as they describe not only their own lives, but also those of the other inhabitants of Tel Kedar. There are new immigrants as well as older ones. There are people who have suffered incredible tragedy. But there are also comic characters, lively Russians, hopeful young students…

Don’t Call It Night is not an explicitly political novel. It is more indirect and subtle. It does not deal with terrorism, or reprisals by the Israeli army, or the thousand failed meetings in the quest for peace in the Middle East. It is a book that explores the human spirit, that tells the story of a community far from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, protected by armed guard and barbed wire, trying to live a normal life like any other town in the world.

Wlodek Goldkorn
writer and journalist, is a native of Poland. He directs the cultural section of “L’Espresso”. His numerous articles on international and cultural issues have appeared in publications such as “Micromega”, “Limes” and “Mondoperaio”. His most recent work is La scelta di Abramo. Identità ebraiche e postmodernità (2006).

Inge Schoenthal Feltrinelli
is vice president of EFFE 2005, which controls the Feltrinelli publishing house and the Feltrinelli chain of 90 bookshops. For her commitment to promoting the work of Italian authors internationally, as well as foreign authors in Italy, she has received numerous honours, including the prestigious Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.