Apeirogon: A Novel

Ich habe durch diesen Roman sehr viel über Palästinenser und Israelis und den Konflikt erfahren, der mit der geometrischen Figur des Apeirogons treffend beschrieben ist: unendlich viele Ursachen und Problemlagen. Das Gefühl, der Roman wäre (ein wenig) parteiisch auf Seiten der Palästinenser, kam bei mir zu keinem Zeitpunkt auf. Beide Parteien sind gleichermaßen verstrickt, und auf beiden Seiten gibt es die Gutwilligen und Einsichtigen.

Through the story of two men, Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin, who each lost their daughter, the Palestinian conflict is portrayed in all its history and complexity. This great book by Colum McCann has unfortunately gained urgency again. The book consists of short, sometimes tiny chapters, often just in the form of a sentence, a thought fragment, associatively coherent, then again completely contradictory, ideas, memories, descriptions of the landscape, excerpts from minutes, feelings, inner monologues, facts that feel disjointed (e.g. about Mitterrand's banquet preferences) that are suddenly coherently integrated into the larger picture a few pages later, conversations... The book is definitely worth reading. I was often very touched by the brutality, the sadness and the complexity of this conflict and the associated fates of the two protagonists in particular. It definitely made me think.