A massive, affecting novel–the story of individuals, a nation, and a journey.  Ora, wife of Ilan and lover of Avram, is at middle-age, a separated wife, a physical therapist, mother of Adam and Ofer when the latter is ‘called up’ for the Gaza invasion on the final day of his 3 year IDF service just as the two of them are about to go off on a hike in the Galilee.  Ofer goes off to the Army and Ora takes off for the ‘end of the land’ with Avram, whom  she has not seen for the 21 years since their son Ofer was born.  We learn of Avram’s torture and near death at the hands of the Egyptians after his capture in the Yom Kippur War and how Ilan and Ora nursed him back to life, if not health.  The walk from the end of the land to Jerusalem is marked by events limning the ordeal of modern Israel and its peoples as well as the supremely difficult work of living a life.  Ora’s reflections and remembrances of her children’s early lives are perhaps told in a little too much detail, but the reconnection to Avram and Ofer at the same time that she is distant from Ilan and Adam represents balance in the zero sum game of life.  Grossman who lost his own son Uri at the Lebanese border two days before the cease fire that ended that fighting writes a moving, beautiful, and painful book.