To the End of the Land
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| Author | David Grossman |
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| Original title | אשה בורחת מבשורה |
| Translator | Jessica Cohen |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Genre | anti-war novel, literary fiction |
| Publisher | HaKibbutz HaMeuchad Publishing House, Ltd (1st edition) |
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Publication date
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2008 (1st edition) |
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Published in English
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21 September 2010 (1st American edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 592 (Hardcover, 1st American edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 495781119 |
To the End of the Land (original Hebrew title "Isha Borachat Mi’bsora" – "A Woman Flees a Message") is a 2008 novel by Israeli writer David Grossman depicting the emotional strains that family members of soldiers experience when their loved ones are deployed into combat. Grossman began writing the novel in May 2003 when his oldest son Yonatan was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces and the book was largely complete by August 2006 when his younger son Uri was killed in the Second Lebanon War.
Originally written in Hebrew, an English translation by Jessica Cohen was published in September 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Translation of this work presented a considerable challenge to the translator, as the original includes numerous Hebrew puns as well as quotations from and allusions to the Hebrew Bible as well as works of modern Hebrew literature.
Ora, a recently divorced Jerusalemite physiotherapist in her early fifties, had anxiously waited for her son Ofer to get through his three years' term of military service – spent mainly in confronting and skirmishing with the rebellious Palestinians of the Second Intifada. But just as she prepares to mark Ofer's safe return by going off with him to a long-planned week of backpacking in the Galilee, the West Bank situation sharply escalates and the Israeli Army launches an all-out invasion ("Operation Defensive Shield" of April 2002). To Ora's great dismay, Ofer volunteers to rejoin his unit. Taking him in a taxi to the base camp, Ora is filled with apprehension that Ofer is going to get killed, and compares herself to the Biblical Abraham who took his son off to be slaughtered. Back in her empty home, she is haunted by unbearable visions of army officers knocking on her door and bringing the message of Ofer's death in action, and at a moment's notice she runs off "To the End of the Land".
Ora's wanderings and trekking through the Israeli countryside make up the bulk of the book's plot. She refuses to listen to news broadcasts or read papers, but cannot help noticing monuments of old battles and the inscribed names of dead soldiers. Interspersed with Ora's various experiences – surrealistic, nightmarish and sometimes humorous – are memories of previous events in her life, love relationships and motherhood, and the way it was impacted by earlier wars and conflicts in Israel's history.
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