People
Childhood in Dzhambul in Uri Orlev’s book
The story of a real child, told in Hebrew.
Published
This is a translation. The original is Русский. Language review: not performed by a native speaker.
Five-year-old Elyusha flees from Kostopol to Dzhambul with his mother, twin sisters and younger brother. His father joins the army. In the village, the family live in an adobe house, heat the stove with dried dung and fetch water from the river. This is the Kazakhstani part of Uri Orlev’s book “הביתה מערבות השמש” (“Homeward from the Steppes of the Sun”).
The Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature identifies Eli Paz-Poznik as the person on whom the protagonist is based. Orlev wrote a fictional story based on his childhood.
When the family learn that the father has died, the mother decides to leave for Palestine. Their journey takes them through refugee camps; in Palestine, Elyusha begins living on a kibbutz.