Yaël Dayan (1939–2024)

Haim Kalinsky is a father put in a terrible situation: the Nazi soldiers have told him he must choose one of his sons to live. Instinctively Haim reaches out to his son Shmuel. Why? Why Shmuel and not Daniel? Haim could never answer that question. Ironically, it is Shmuel who ends up dying, and Daniel, who is immediately taken away by the soldiers, who lives.

After the war, Haim remarries and moves on with his quiet life. Then one day he is approached by an Israeli aid worker who offers to show more help investigate the fate of the two boys. Hope arises in Haim, and eventually he and Daniel are put in touch. But Daniel has never been able to move on with his life. He is consumed by the memories of his father choosing Shmuel over him. After contemplating whether he even wants to write to his father and his new family, Daniel begins a very uneasy relationship with him.

All of these memories are told in flashbacks as Daniel sits in a hotel room across the street from where his father lies dying in a hospital. Indecision about whether to visit him and what he would say if he did, plague Daniel. He reviews his whole life, which he sees as a litany of loss. His final decision is bittersweet.

I found the book a sad study of love, guilt, and loss. I had a hard time relating to Haim's complacent nature and Daniel's unrelenting anger and grief. Post-war Israel must have held many such stories, but I can only hope that some were more hopeful. show less

This is very sad and beautiful story about Daniel, the survivor of a Nazi death camp and the younger of two sons who was left alone by a choice his father made. Later, after being rescued and taken to Kibbutz Gilad by Yoram, Daniel tries to reconcile the fact that his dad also survived the death camp.

At first I felt that this story was not speaking to me because it seemed that the narrator told the story rather than letting the story tell itself. Later, I became very wrapped up in the story show more because I was intrigued by Daniel's persistent inability to form permanent attachments to others and his continued aloofness with his father.

Most of the book was going back and forth between Daniel's life after the war and Daniel's father declining with advanced lung cancer. Not a book of joy, this novel is, however, a look at a deep psychological wound carried by one person throughout his life. show less

"Nuevo rostro en el espejo" (New Face in the Mirror) es la novela debut de la escritora y política israelí Yaël Dayan, publicada originalmente en 1959 cuando ella tenía apenas 20 años.
Contexto y Trama
La obra es de carácter semi-autobiográfico y ofrece una mirada cruda y directa a la vida de una joven en el ejército israelí.
Protagonista: Ariel, una joven que, al igual que Dayan, se alista para cumplir con el servicio militar obligatorio.
Temática: Explora la búsqueda de identidad, show more el aislamiento emocional y la transición de la adolescencia a la madurez bajo la disciplina militar. A diferencia de las narrativas heroicas comunes de la época, la novela se centra en la frialdad y el individualismo de la protagonista mientras intenta encontrar su propio "rostro".
Relación familiar: Refleja la compleja dinámica de ser hija de una figura pública poderosa (Yaël era hija del mítico general Moshé Dayan), abordando el peso de las expectativas y la necesidad de independencia.
Impacto y Recepción
Éxito internacional: Se convirtió en un best-seller inmediato y fue traducida a varios idiomas, incluyendo el español.
Estilo: Fue elogiada por su estilo directo, desprovisto de sentimentalismos, que capturaba la mentalidad de la generación nacida en el Estado de Israel (los sabras).
La autora, quien falleció en junio de 2024, utilizó esta obra para consolidarse como una de las voces literarias y políticas más importantes de su país, pasando de ser "la hija del héroe" a una defensora de los derechos humanos y la paz. show less