Suddenly, Love

Meer over het boek

One night, he dreamed that Iréna wore the uniform of the Red Army. They were together in a jeep racing at full speed. The ride suddenly stopped, Iréna got out, removed her boots, and revealed a perfect foot. Ernest was so moved that he knelt and asked for permission to kiss the sole of her foot, and without waiting for a response, he bowed his head and did so. An aging writer and a devoted young girl: the idyl is not new. What then accounts for the shock of such a book? Beyond its apparent banality, Aharon Appelfeld imbues this narrative with a distinctly biblical grandeur. The encounter between Ernest and Iréna transcends them, becoming a revelation that allows each to access the secret meaning of their existence, now finally decipherable. A political life, inscribed in history—a century haunted by totalitarianism and the destruction of Jewish identity. And another life, that of the "heavenly Jews" dear to Appelfeld's heart. Between the near and the distant, identification and distancing, daily life and metaphysics, Appelfeld creates literature of extraordinary strength and uniqueness.