Evacuation

Shortlisted, JQ Wingate Literary Prize, United Kingdom, 2019

Translated by Penny Hueston

Naor, a young filmmaker, is driving with his mother. He tells her about being in Tel Aviv after a recent evacuation.

Everyone else has fled, except for Naor & Yaël, his artist girlfriend, & Saba, his grandfather, who is a writer. The occasional missile explodes nearby. But Saba refuses to leave the place he loves. And Yaël has her own secret aspirations.

In defiance of the war, they scavenge an existence and explore the mysteries of their beloved city—until the unthinkable happens.

In Evacuation, a novel of suspense, a profound tale about our choices under pressure, about love, for each other & for a place, about death, & about finding a way to peace, Raphaël Jerusalmy is at the height of his powers.

When everything was ready, Yaël went over & leaned against the roof railing. Saba practised saying his lines about ten times. But, there you go, that night there was no air-raid. Yaël & Saba asked me to film anyway. They were...

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Raphaël Jerusalmy holds degrees from the École Normale Supérieure & the Sorbonne. He made his career in the Israeli military intelligence services before working in the humanitarian & educational fields. He is now a novelist & antiquarian book dealer in Tel Aviv. His first novel, Saving Mozart, is also published by Text. 

Penny Hueston’s translations from French include novels by Emmanuelle Pagano (One Day I’ll Tell You Everything), Patrick Modiano (Little Jewel), Sarah Cohen-Scali (Max) & Raphaël Jerusalmy (Evacuation). She has translated six books by Marie Darrieussecq — All the Way, Men, Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker, Our Life in the Forest, The Baby, & Crossed Lines. 

She has been shortlisted for the JQ-Wingate Prize, the Scott Moncrief Prize, & twice for the New South Wales Premier’s Translation Prize. She was the winner of the 2020 Medal for Excellence i