Why a Booktrail?
20,21st C – A collection of tales which form a picture of what life in like in a small village in Israel, close to the capital of Tel Aviv
Scenes From Village Life
What you need to know before your trail
Oz’s fictional small Israeli village of Tel Ilan, close to Tel Aviv is a pioneer village, surrounded by fields and orchards, the people here are mainly farmers or laborers of some kind.
Israel is going through changes – the village is being transformed and becoming somewhat of a resort where people would come for the holidays. A small village is gaining art galleries and shops and as it changes so too do the people living there. How they changes and how they cope is explored in eight separate but interwoven tales.
Travel Guide
Although the village of Tell Ilan is fictional, it is somewhere close to Tel Aviv and could be a description of many villages in and around the area. What matters is this is a village undergoing change –
“Tel Ilan, a pioneer village, already a century old, was surrounded by fields and orchards.”
An idyllic village at first sight but one with a deep sense of tradition”
Many of the inhabitants still farmed, with the help of foreign laborers who lived in huts in the farmyards. But some had leased out their land and made a living by letting rooms, by running art galleries or fashion boutiques or by working outside the village.
Some changes are welcome but others are hard to live with –
“On weekends, of course, the village filled with visitors who came to eat or to hunt for a bargain. But every Friday afternoon its streets emptied as the residents rested behind closed shutters.”
This is a village and a people in flux and the place and setting is an unsettling one. An old man for example complains of a digging noise and blames it on his Arab neighbour, but he too is disturbed by the noise. Neither of them can imagine what lies behind that noise..
The darkness of our lives, snippets of village life and human secrets are examine. as they remain prisoners of their past and try to hang on to the village as was, their community and sense of it also changes.
A snapshot of life and human emotions in a unique place.
The booktrail features Tel Aviv since the village is fictional but also mentions a village we think it might be based on.
Where Next?
