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All the Rivers cover art

All the Rivers

Written by: Dorit Rabinyan, Jessica Cohen - translator
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
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Publisher's Summary

A controversial, award-winning story about the passionate but untenable affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, from one of Israel's most acclaimed novelists.

When Liat meets Hilmi on a blustery autumn afternoon in Greenwich Village, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Charismatic and handsome, Hilmi is a talented young artist from Palestine. Liat, an aspiring translation student, plans to return to Israel the following summer. Despite knowing that their love can be only temporary, that it can exist only away from their conflicted homeland, Liat lets herself be enraptured by Hilmi - by his lively imagination, by his beautiful hands and wise eyes, by his sweetness and devotion.

Together they explore the city, sharing laughs and fantasies and pangs of homesickness. But the unfettered joy they awaken in each other cannot overcome the guilt Liat feels for hiding him from her family in Israel and her Jewish friends in New York. As her departure date looms and her love for Hilmi deepens, Liat must decide whether she is willing to risk alienating her family, her community, and her sense of self for the love of one man.

Banned from classrooms by Israel's Ministry of Education, Dorit Rabinyan's remarkable novel contains multitudes. A bold portrayal of the strains - and delights - of a forbidden relationship, All the Rivers (published in Israel as Borderlife) is a love story and a war story, a New York story and a Middle East story, an unflinching foray into the forces that bind us and divide us. "The land is the same land," Hilmi reminds Liat. "In the end all the rivers flow into the same sea."

©2017 Dorit Rabinyan (P)2017 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"A fine, subtle, and disturbing study of the ways in which public events encroach upon the private lives of those who attempt to live and love in peace with each other, and, impossibly, with a riven and irreconcilable world." (John Banville, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea)
"I'm with Dorit Rabinyan. Love, not hate, will save us. Hatred sows hatred, but love can break down barriers." (Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature)
"Rabinyan's writing reflects the honesty and modesty of a true artisan." ( Haaretz)

What listeners say about All the Rivers

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predictable yet honest story

The narrator's Israeli accents were incorrect and thus unbelievable. When readers take on a project, they ougt to perfect the protagonist's accent.
The Israeli Palestinian story was predictable but for readers who are not aware of how painful and deeply ingrained in the respective societies, this book presents how the repurcussions the political reality impact Palestinian and Israeli lives.

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