Today we talk about A FLEETING GLANCE, a book by Madelyn Hoffman published with our Publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author, Madelyn Hoffman, to get to know her better, what particular moment of her life led her to the writing of her autobiographical book A FLEETING GLANCE, as well as how she describes her writing style.
- Where and when did you find the inspiration to write your book?
In 2013, I spent several days on the West Bank in Occupied Palestine. I met a young Palestinian man there who worked for an organization called “Youth Against Settlements.” He showed me around his neighbourhood of Al-Khalil (Hebron) and taught me much about the apartheid life there. We visited the al-Ibrahimi Mosque where he told me about the 1994 massacre of Muslims by an Israeli settler. We went through several checkpoints on the way. We also stood underneath wire netting built by Palestinians and placed above the cobblestones of the old city, to protect Palestinians from the garbage thrown from the illegal settlement above to the streets below. He told me that Palestinians “don’t have a centimetre’s worth of room to move” and he showed me why. Those 2 days on the West Bank, seeing the reality of apartheid, feeling the fear of those Palestinians living there, and hearing about two deaths of Palestinians by settlers, changed me for life and inspired me to write this book. And, as I reported on the events in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the last election of Benjamin Netanyahu, I felt an urgency to finish the book.
- What is the message you want to convey to your readers?
The message I want to convey is that something has gone terribly wrong with the country of Israel and the current genocide of Palestinians. The “Fleeting Glance” that takes place above and beneath actual wire netting constructed in the old city of Hebron, in my fictionalized, but reality-based novel, haunts both the Israeli settler girl (Miriam) and the Palestinian girl (Mariam), through adulthood. Separating ourselves through barriers, walls, settlements, and more is not going to bring justice or peace. Both young women wrestled with the desire to get to know the “other” but were consistently denied that chance by the circumstances of their lives and the policies of the Israeli government. It is only when the Israeli settler young woman participates in the anti-genocide encampment at Columbia University, the first such encampment of what became many, that she realizes how much she lost by growing up in an apartheid state. At the end of the book, both young women reflect on what happened to their hopes and dreams.
- What significant life experiences find expression in your book?
My great-aunt was a proud Zionist and a pioneer woman on the land of Palestine before Israel was created in 1948. She always wanted her great grand-nieces and nephews to go to visit the country she loved. In fact, she once tried to bribe me to continue piano lessons by offering me an all-expenses paid trip to Israel. I refused because I didn’t like being bribed. I studied Hebrew in college and spent a semester abroad in 1977, after working on a kibbutz in 1976. I have always believed that if the world could figure out how to resolve the situation in occupied Palestine that the whole world would be a more peaceful place. Palestine holds the key. This book is one attempt to unravel the problem by focusing on the common humanity between Palestinians and Israelis and to find hope for a resolution in that humanity. It crushes me inside to see the on-going genocide and the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people, so much of it brought about by the lack of real understanding and empathy between the two peoples.
- What sensations did you feel by ‘reading’ such life experiences on the pages of your book?
Every time I read the pages of this book, I respond differently, but always, I feel both sad and angry! World events are moving so rapidly, making the messages of the book even more urgent. What if we all had an opportunity to meet those people whom we perceive as “our enemy” instead of being taught to hate someone we barely even know? The book asks that question many times. What if we had more contact with people who live in different countries from us? A friend of mine from Tunisia invited me to attend his brother’s wedding, now almost 12 years ago. He told me he wanted me to see that Muslims also put their pants on one leg at a time and that the life of Muslims was not how the mainstream Western press portrays it. That trip, followed by a trip to the West Bank in occupied Palestine, changed me forever. I hope that my book will help persuade people that we need to respect each other’s differences, not use those differences to divide us. I also hope that there’s still time to save the world from racism and hate and instead work for peace and justice.
- Are you working on a new writing project, you can tell us about?
Yes. I am writing a much longer novel, something called auto-fiction, based on understanding and communicating why I decided, at the age of 66, to move to the country of Colombia, after an entire lifetime in the U.S. I started studying Spanish during the pandemic and am now attending on-line classes in Latin American literature, to both learn more about the history and culture of Latin America and to understand how that history and culture, as well as the culture of the indigenous of the region, shaped people’s lives. I am also learning about the lives of campesinos, and their connection to the land. I believe that if more of the world worked to preserve the campesino way of life and campesinos’ connection to the land, the whole world would be better off. Similarly, the more that North America builds solidarity with Latin America instead of walls, the better off we all would be. As a self-identified “citizen of the world,” such is my dream.
Europe Books thanks the author, Madelyn Hoffman, once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside her on the editorial path that led to the publication of her book A FLEETING GLANCE. We wish her the best of luck for her future works.
To you, my readers, may this book capture, intrigue you and also allow you to collect food for thoughts and reflect upon these true stories, even if fictionalized, but very present in our everyday life.
So, my dear readers, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your editor!