“A significant new artistic voice.” Aharon Appelfeld
Today’s excerpt: Aaron, the grandfather.
“Son, I grew up in a different world. The infant’s clinging to the mother’s body was seen as the source of a proper development, the origin of an orderly world. People used to think that the first bonding of a mother and child was the source of all love and grace. I don’t think so anymore, but before you were born I never ever considered the possibility that I would be the one to hold you close to my body, and not Mum. Fathers weren’t even present at the birth, they waited outside the delivery room.”
After the birth of their grandson:
“Already after the birth, full of excitement, Rebecca and I held hands for a long time. She normally sleeps in the bedroom, I fall asleep in what used to be Amir’s room. But then, elated and exhausted, we went together to the bedroom and fell asleep in each other’s arms. Well, we now sleep together again. After the initial excitement of the delivery subsided, a new passion emerged. Not restored youth, but on the contrary, a revived old age. A new encounter with our ageing bodies.”
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