In an interview with a UCLA student, Gavron speaks about his motivation for writing, his approach to his work and advice for aspiring writers

“I write to make sense of my life.”

by Jessica Behmanesh (UCLA, 2017)

Assaf Gavron is a renowned Israeli novelist, journalist and artist. As a novelist, he has received the Bernstein Prize (for “The Hilltop”) and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Creative Award for Authors. Gavron’s work has been praised for exploring complex subjects; two of his translated novels, “Almost Dead” and “The Hilltop,” address the second Intifada and life in the West Bank settlements, respectively.

The UCLA community will have the chance to see and hear Gavron live this Wednesday, March 2, at 4:30 PM at 190 Royce Hall. Gavron will speak on the politically charged Israeli environment and its effects on the style of literature written in the country. On February 26, this author had the chance to interview Gavron and learn more about his background. The following is a distillation of that interview.

Question: What inspired you to become a writer?

Gavron: I think one [inspiration] was reading. I have enjoyed books since I was a child. My father always gave and suggested books [to me]. The second motivation was actually writing. Writing inspires writing. I started when I was writing letters as a traveler. I was writing letters to my friends and I was getting positive feedback from them to write more. So, actually, the enjoyment from writing and the response that I was getting was inspiring.

Question: Can you describe the process of researching and then writing your work?

Gavron: I do a lot of research for my books. First of all, I think I choose topics that are interesting to me, but not necessarily connected to my direct life. I find writing novels to be a way for me to learn, and for readers to learn about topics that are interesting. I want to learn about other worlds [besides my own]. But that means, as an author, you need to know the other worlds really well. So, I do intensive and practical research. Not just reading in the library or going online, but actually going places.

One book not translated into English was published in Israel in 2003 and was called “Moving.” It is about Israeli movers in America. I travelled to New York and worked for three years as a mover and moved long distances, almost all over the United States. I wanted to get the sense of this life, of how movers live and work. The same [strategy] went for these two books [“The Hilltop” and “Almost Dead”]. I think especially for “The Hilltop”—I don’t know this world personally. It’s the [West Bank] settlements; I hardly went there before. I am not a religious Jew and I don’t know their world. So I needed to get to know that world. For that book I mainly travelled to settlements, met and talked to the people, and absorbed the atmosphere. The way it transformed into fiction was slow. I think I started writing six months or maybe more into my research. That doesn’t mean that my research stopped there [when I started writing]. It went on until the last moment that the book was being printed.

I know the politics of Israel. I breathe it and it’s in my blood. But the specifics, like religion, are the things I needed to get to know.

Question: In “Almost Dead,” which takes place during the second Intifada, you give the perspectives of two different types of people: an Israeli working in high-tech and a Palestinian bomb maker. The existence of these two characters provides readers with alternating views of a single conflict. What motivated you to evince both perspectives?

Assaf: This book is actually different than the ones that I mentioned before, which started with an idea and then led to slow research. In the case of “Almost Dead,” I started writing almost out of impulse, without planning, because I was living in a period in Tel Aviv that was crazy—with the second Intifada and its suicide bombings. I had a bus ride similar to the one in the first chapter [where the main character just escapes a suicide bombing attack] and I started writing. When I realized that [I was] writing a book about the second Intifada, I knew that I had to include both sides, because there were two sides to the Intifada, and also because I write to make sense of my life.

First off, I wanted people to understand the two sides. Some Israelis didn’t want to hear about the Palestinians… many thought bombs were falling from the sky, but they were actually coming from people on the ground with motivations. People thought that they were sick, crazy, animals. But they’re not animals, they’re human beings. So, I said that if I’m writing a book about this period of time, I will include both. This was also a problem because I belong to one side as an Israeli Jew. I could easily talk about one side. I had to do a lot of research to write the Palestinian character in a legitimate way.

Question: In “The Hilltop,” there are many characters—so many that the beginning of the novel features a list of “cast” members. One often associates a cast with a musical or a play, something fictional and meant to be viewed as entertainment. Does the word choice in the initial pages of the book intend to influence the way in which readers will approach the rest of the story?

Gavron: That’s an interesting question. To be honest, I never thought of that. There are two parts to my answer. First of all, no I didn’t think about that. I didn’t use the word “cast” to make readers think about the book in a different way, or as entertainment. Also, understand that I write in Hebrew, so everything in the English translation is the choice of the editor and the translator. I read the translation and approved it, but the choice of that word is not mine.

But I would say that I do feel, first and foremost, that the goal of my novels—even when I write serious and political novels describing sad situations, like in “Almost Dead”—my first goal is to entertain. So, in a way, you did hit on something in your question because I feel reading should be fun. Readers should enjoy, laugh and smile—even when a book is dealing with serious issues.

Question: What is it that you hope readers will gain from reading your texts?

Gavron: First, I hope readers will be entertained and have fun while reading. When it’s about Israel and its political situation, I think a novel has the ability to do something that other ways of conveying information do not have—like the news, which is where you hear about Israel the most.

My hope is that readers don’t necessarily form an opinion or follow a specific political point of view, but understand that the situation is not black and white. In this conflict, even if you support an opinion and you’re sure of it, you have to know how complex things are and acknowledge different points of view. You must see the different sides of humanity. Maybe someone will learn things they didn’t know about the region and the situation. That is my gain.

Another book [that is] not translated [into English] was about a scenario of a future Israel where there is very little water. One idea comes up to conserve rainwater with a device [that] a character in the book invents. A reader once told me that after reading the book, he started collecting rainwater. He made an improvised device and it made him think and realize that we [in Israel] don’t have much water. For me, it wasn’t my goal for readers to recycle water. But if that’s what they get, then that’s great.

Question: Do you believe that politically charged Israeli literature has the power to bring about social or political change?

Gavron: No, I don’t. I think literature has a limited reach, first of all. Even bestsellers don’t reach the amount of people reached through newspapers, movies and television. But also, it’s not only the numbers that limit a book’s impact. I don’t think people read a book and then change their minds as a nation. I would say changes are made slowly and by small bits. I hope that my books can make a small impact. I don’t think I have the power to bring big change, but I think many people together can express their opinions and help to prevent conditions from getting worse. . .

We can use the same man from the previous example—the man who conserved water. I was not trying to fight global warming. But if a reader thought about it and reflected on how long he takes a shower or how can he can recycle water, it is a small change that has a positive impact.

Question: What sort of advice can you give to aspiring writers?

Gavron: I think that to be a writer, one thing that is important is to be serious about it. Give it a chance and work at it and by working at it, I mean write everyday. Writing every day is a very simple but very important duty as a writer because it keeps you connected with both the aspiration and with what you’re writing at the time.

At the same time, it is important to be humble. Don’t think that you’ll sweep the world with your work in three months. It’s a long ride and you need to take it slowly. You don’t need to expect too much. I think humility is needed [at] every level of this journey. I try to stay that way, myself, because not everyone may be waiting for me and not everyone may want to hear from me. I would say that these are my main two cents: be serious and be humble.

Question: What themes or topics do you find yourself drawn to lately?

Gavron: I am now in the final stages of my next novel. I would say that it deals with a few things. One of them is memory, and another is love. By love, I mean love over time and [across] distance. What is the power of love, and can it overcome distance and can it overcome time? The story is about old people who kind of reconnect to a teenage love in their old days.

The idea and power of love is one part. Another part is something that stems from my personal biography. I am an Israeli born to British immigrants [who] immigrated to Israel in their 20s. I was in Israel, but I have this British past. . . In my new novel, I explore the one time in history when the two nations [Israel, then the British Mandate of Palestine, and Britain] were in direct contact and conflict. In that period there was a lot of drama and also many amazing stories.

Question: What do you like most about your home city of Tel Aviv?

Gavron: I like the spirit. It’s a young city and a liberal city. It’s also a friendly city. Those three things are much harder to find in other parts of Israel. Another thing that I like [about Tel Aviv] is the food. Living here in California,* I really do miss the food of Tel Aviv.

* Novelist Assaf Gavron is currently the Israel Institute visiting artist at San Diego State University