Kibbutz: A Novel

About the Book

Palestine, October 1946. In a convoy of trucks and rusting jeeps, nineteen young men and women drive down to the Negev desert under cover of night. Their mission: to create a Jewish settlement in defiance of the British rulers of Palestine. Working in frantic haste, they erect three primitive tin huts and surround them with a barbed wire fence. By the first light of dawn, Kibbutz Noam is born.

The story is told through the eyes of Hava Chira, an idealistic young English girl who has left a comfortable middle-class home to go to Palestine as a pioneer. Hava quickly learns the meaning of deprivation--living without running water or electricity or any comforts, virtually cut off from the outside world. In the first turbulent years, she experiences hardship, danger, excitement, even war—and develops a deep connection to her new community.

Threading through the novel is the story of Hava’s passion for Amir, a handsome young Israeli resistance fighter who epitomizes her dream. At first she idealizes Amir, but as time goes on, she begins to have doubts—and is faced with an agonizing decision.

About the Author

Irene Gunther was born in England, graduated from Manchester University and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before moving to the United States. She is co-author of a young adult biography, A Spy for Freedom (Lodestar Dutton) and of Editing Fact and Fiction: A Concise Guide to Book Editing (Cambridge University Press), which has been in print for more than twelve years. Her first-person pieces have appeared in the New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, Newsday and other newspapers and magazines. In preparation for writing Kibbutz she spent many months In Israel traveling the country, visiting kibbutzim and doing interviews, including some with the original pioneers, who are now in their seventies and eighties. She lives in New York City.