Change course by focusing on hope to set out on the path to peace. Writer David Grossman, currently at the Turin Book Fair, looks to the future with confidence, emphasizing a “word I have often used in these ten years.” Speaking with journalists on the occasion of the publication of the Meridiano Mondadori – in bookstores from May 12 and dedicated to his works, a two-volume box set with an introductory essay by Gabriel Zoran and a chronology presented as a conversation with the author by Wlodek Goldkorn – the author of See Under: Love addresses the pressing topics of current politics as well as the most interesting aspects of his literary career. The discussion inevitably begins with an assessment of what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

Is there still room for hope? “The situation,” the writer observes, “continues to be very complex, extremely contradictory, especially as we approach the elections that should be held in two or three months. You know my position regarding the word hope. It is a word I have used often in the last ten years, and today, more than ever, it is needed. I don’t understand why this word cannot prevail. If we truly believe in hope, it is possible that both Israeli and Palestinian societies can find a place where it can develop and flourish. And if hope remains, not all is lost. How do you remind people that there is an alternative to killing?” the novelist asks, adding: “We must have the courage to change the situation,” because otherwise we will “all be condemned to be caught up in this endless cycle of death. Frankly, I cannot accept that idea.”

In this context, a danger facing Israeli society – and others – is the widening spread of antisemitism. A phenomenon that, Grossman says, the new generations will have to stop. “For many years after the end of the Second World War and the Shoah, one could not be racist, one could not be antisemitic. Now things have changed: it is as if being antisemitic has become acceptable. This is a problem my generation will not have to face but the young will. Will they succeed? I don’t know, but I do know they have few alternatives, because the risk is that they become slaves and victims. They must fight not only for themselves, but also for their children. I speak of antisemitism in the sense of racism as well. This reasoning therefore applies to Israel, but also to Ukraine, Yemen, to anywhere in the world. Young people must make their voices heard.”

Grossman’s remarks are not only political. The conversation turns to themes connected to the work he has done over many years. He continues to work, though he downplays questions about whether a new book is in his “laboratory”: “I am working on a new book but, as the Hebrew proverb says, the blessing is in secrecy. So I won’t say anything.” How, then, has the Israeli author’s writing changed over his long career? “I hope,” Grossman replies, “that my books have changed me. I also hope that when a reader closes the last page of my book they are a different person. I hope they have been able to grasp the different shades of life, the nuances I always try to bring out in my pages. The role of the writer is precisely to focus on what is neglected in our lives, so that readers can open their eyes to the subtleties of life that are lost.” Moreover, the power of literature, according to Grossman, “is that it makes us understand that there is always another person in front of us.” This reflection stems from the fact that “for example in war the individual is never taken into account,” but humanity is considered “in blocks of people, as large movements,” Grossman argues, and reflecting on his work he explains: “Each of my books has been a prologue to the next; each has filled a specific part of my life.” Grossman will present the Meridiano on Sunday, May 17 at 16:15 with Wlodek Goldkorn and Paolo Di Paolo in Hall 500. (by Carlo Roma)