A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel
by Meir Shalev
List Price:
Our Price: $8.24
You Save: $7.71 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.84 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Meir ShalevEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-06
ISBN: 0805212140
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Schocken
Book Reviews of A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel
Book Review: A house and a man...
Summary: 5 Stars
...is another possible title for this excellent book. "A Pigeon and a Boy" is a lovely novel that takes two main stories, places them side by side, and lets each play out.
What's remarkable about "A Pigeon and a Boy" is Meir Shalev's way of letting two stories develop without having either one ever grow stale or frustrating. Oftentimes, I find myself preferring one story over another, skimming the boring one and waiting eagerly for the good one. This is not the case with "A Pigeon and a Boy". Shalev knows when to give two chapters in a row from one story, when to showcase one character over another, and when to hold back and take a break. It's a refreshing way to tell both stories, and most effective too. Shalev has space to develop his characters, as well as an easy pace for his two wonderful stories.
Shalev also finds a good balance with his writing. The two stories are even written in slightly different styles, as if to accentuate the fact that they are indeed two separate stories. It's done very well, with just enough similarity between them to let them intertwine (as they inevitably do). Shalev never overwrites and never lets his writing bog down in heavy, cluttered sentences, but finds just where to be simple and just where to vividly describe a situation or place. Main character Yair, as a travel guide, takes us up and down the Israeli countryside, from Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, to the north, and anywhere in between.
Yair himself is one of the many pillars holding up "A Pigeon and a Boy". Middle aged, unhappy in his married life, contemplating a need for a place of his own, and telling the story for his mother's benefit, he is a wholly real character. He makes mistakes, he faces them, he is awkward, he struggles with his family life, he learns. Yair is human in a way many characters aren't, and this makes him very easy to relate to. Aspects of his character may be frustrating, but frustrating in the way they'd be in good friends of ours.
Most characters in this book are well developed - from the Baby and the Girl, to Yair, to Tirzah, and through to Yair's mother and father. Some don't get enough screen time to fully flesh out. I'd have liked to get to know Yair's wife Liora better, much in the way I'd have liked the developing love between Yair and Tirzah to be fuller and more in-depth. This is perhaps due to the story of the Baby and the Girl, which develops so carefully that anything else seems so much less.
Ultimately, though, even as there are flaws (and like almost every book, there are a few flaws here and there), the book is beautifully crafted and wonderfully told. Comprised of two excellent stories and lots of facts to make the reader fall in love with carrier pigeons, "A Pigeon and a Boy" is a great example of good Israeli fiction, as well as a great book on its own.
Highly recommended.
Summary of A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel
From the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev comes a mesmerizing novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one enchanting act of devotion.During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the 1948 war. Yair is a tour guide specializing in bird-watching trips who, in middle age, falls in love again with a childhood girlfriend. His growing passion for her, along with a gift from his mother on her deathbed, becomes the key to a life he thought no longer possible.
Unforgettable in both its particulars and its sweep, A Pigeon and A Boy is a tale of lovers then and now--of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it. In a voice that is at once playful, wise, and altogether beguiling, Meir Shalev tells a story as universal as war and as intimate as a winged declaration of love.
From the Hardcover edition.
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.24
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.77
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Storyby Ari Folman, David Polonsky
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2009-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.47
Price in other shops:
Beaufortby Ron Leshem
Delta; Published: 2009-02-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.20
Price in other shops:
The Paperbark Shoeby Goldie Goldbloom
Picador; Published: 2011-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Four Meals: A Novelby Meir Shalev
Canongate UK; Published: 2010-07-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.45
Price in other shops:
A Tale of Love and Darknessby Amos Oz
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries)by Julie Orringer
Vintage; Published: 2011-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.74
Price in other shops:
Beginnings: Reflections on the Bible's Intriguing Firstsby Meir Shalev
Harmony; Published: 2011-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
To the End of the Land (Vintage International)by David Grossman
Vintage; Published: 2011-08-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.60
Price in other shops:
My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family Memoirby Meir Shalev
Schocken; Published: 2011-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
The Blue Mountain: A Novelby Meir Shalev
Canongate UK; Published: 2010-07-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.71
Price in other shops: