I am so looking forward to this month!
There is a folk proverb that says that once a lion is woken up and tastes human flesh, it will never eat anything else again. In Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s second novel, the woken lion is Sirkit, the wife of the man Eitan ran over; the flesh she refuses to let go of is Eitan’s. The day after the murder, she appears at Eitan’s home holding his wallet. She uses it to blackmail Eitan into setting up a night clinic in a garage where he is forced to treat the sick of the Eritrean refugees. Eitan is trapped. He must work at his makeshift clinic at night or face murder charges, and he must continue to live his everyday life as a neurosurgeon in a nearby hospital. All this must be done without his children discovering his secret life. It is especially imperative that he keeps his secret from his wife, who is a police officer actively investigating the crime.
As Eitan hides his night activities, Sirkit hides her true motives. The two work together night after night as Eitan fabricates stories for his family. Eitan and Sirkit are ambiguous about each other: “It’s difficult to hate for such a long, continuous period of time. Two people work in the same place for hours. Around them, people come and go. But it’s always the same two people in the same place.… they begin to be too tired even to hate.” A relationship builds between them.
The author elegantly intertwines symbols and metaphors into her tale. The moon is vital to the Eritrean woman, because it allows Eitan to see to perform his procedures. Sirkit herself grows roses next to her door, a clear reference to Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, where roses grew next to the jailhouse where Hester was kept. The women in both novels kept their secrets.
The Eritreans and the Bedouins are portrayed as underdogs — viewed as unwanted trespassers on the land of the story. The hatred of the Israelis toward the two groups is reciprocated. A Bedouin boy hits an Israeli boy in the eye with a hammer; the Israeli police casually deal with the Eritrean and Bedouin deaths. One feels for the strangers who are treated so cavalierly by the society that harbors them.
Waking Lions is a sophisticated and eloquently written book. It is also a gripping read, offering readers a fascinating look into the little-known culture of the Eritrean refugee camp. It allows the reader to enter a world of secrets, moral corruption, and redemption.
The People of Forever are Not Afraid
Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain. Yael trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just before danger erupts.
In a relentlessly energetic and arresting voice marked by humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu creates an unforgettably intense world, capturing that unique time in a young woman’s life when a single moment can change everything.
Aftergrowth
Considered a national treasure, her work is taught as part of the school curriculum to this day. Scribbling many of her poems on hospital napkins while battling tuberculosis, her work echoes feelings of longing and loss. Rachel published two books before dying at the age of forty. This book is bilingual, with Hebrew and English side-by-side and line-by-line. Also included are audio recordings of the original Hebrew poems, appealing to readers who wish to learn Hebrew, lovers of poetry, or both.
Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil – A good glug of EVOO does this dish absolute wonders. It binds the flavours together beautifully and keeps the dish nice and silky smooth.
Onion and Red Pepper – Used to bulk out the dish. A lot of recipes stuff a tonne of different veg, but it truly doesn’t need it. Keep it simple. I like the base as more of a sauce than a skillet of veg.
Spices – I use 4: paprika, cumin, smoked paprika and cayenne pepper.
Tomatoes – Canned and chopped is best.
Eggs – Of course.
How to make Shakshuka (quick summary)
Fry pepper and onion in olive oil until softened and beginning to brown.
Add garlic and fry for a couple of minutes longer.
Stir in spices.
Pour in tomatoes and season. Leave to simmer for 5 mins.
Crack in eggs and cook
A lot of recipes state to simmer the sauce until it thickens, add the eggs then put the skillet straight in the oven or pop on the lid. From doing this I found that not only does the sauce dry up easier (more so in the baking method), but the egg yolks are more likely to overcook, or at least glaze over with egg white.
By simmering with the lid off you allow the egg whites to get a head start cooking, meanwhile by the time they’re almost done, no direct heat has been subjected to the egg yolks, meaning they’re still going to be nice and runny after a short stint in the oven or with the lid on. Just a quick note on the two cooking methods:
Lid on – Finish cooking the eggs by pop a lid on your skillet and steam/poach your eggs. This method is great because it stops the sauce from reducing too much. I recommend moving the skillet around the flame a few times to make sure each egg cooks evenly.
Bake in the oven – Finish cooking the eggs in the oven. Make sure your skillet is oven safe and ensure you use a towel/oven glove to take it out as it’s gonna be hotttttt.
Serve with Feta and toast like ciabatta -YUM.
I own so many, however I am starting with the listed books plus some extra cookbooks out of the library. I have to say to date this is my favorite reading challenge, also I can not believe it is April.
