#1 Best Seller - Over 50,000 Copies Sold
Hailed by Israel's founder David Ben-Gurion, Days of Lead is a gripping best seller recounting the author's life on the front line during Israel's War of Independence.
Exquisitely written with a poetically beautiful touch, Days of Lead is the page-turning true story of a young soldier's brave escapades during Israel's War of Independence in 1948. This incredible account is a story of determination and heroism, but also a stinging portrait of life on the battlefield—of looking an enemy soldier, also wide-eyed and only eighteen, in the eyes and knowing that it's his life or yours, either you take a life or you lose yours. Far from a regular coming-of-age story, this is a firsthand account of a young man trying desperately to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, but watching them taken down one-by-one until he's the last man alive on his platoon. It's heartrending, but enthralling.
This new edition of Days of Lead , published in English for the first time, provides an up-close view of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv long before they became the bustling cities we know today. It also presents fascinating, never-before-shared context on the making of the book and its enduring relevancy, as Israeli soldiers continue to fight for Israel's right to exist.
In a personal letter to the author, Israel's founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, one of many well-known celebrators of the book, writes, "I started reviewing your book without the intention of reading to its end, but from the first pages I was captivated and I read it to the end through excitement and astonishment. From where all of a sudden pops up such mighty expression, truth telling, and wonderful description? It seems to me that until now I have not read such a precise and true story of combat from the War of Independence. . . . You have contributed a valuable asset . . . to our literature at large."
#1 Best Seller - Over 50,000 Copies Sold
Hailed by Israel's founder David Ben-Gurion, Days of Lead is a gripping best seller recounting the author's life on the front line during Israel's War of Independence.
Exquisitely written with a poetically beautiful touch, Days of Lead is the page-turning true story of a young soldier's brave escapades during Israel's War of Independence in 1948. This incredible account is a story of determination and heroism, but also a stinging portrait of life on the battlefield—of looking an enemy soldier, also wide-eyed and only eighteen, in the eyes and knowing that it's his life or yours, either you take a life or you lose yours. Far from a regular coming-of-age story, this is a firsthand account of a young man trying desperately to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, but watching them taken down one-by-one until he's the last man alive on his platoon. It's heartrending, but enthralling.
This new edition of Days of Lead , published in English for the first time, provides an up-close view of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv long before they became the bustling cities we know today. It also presents fascinating, never-before-shared context on the making of the book and its enduring relevancy, as Israeli soldiers continue to fight for Israel's right to exist.
In a personal letter to the author, Israel's founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, one of many well-known celebrators of the book, writes, "I started reviewing your book without the intention of reading to its end, but from the first pages I was captivated and I read it to the end through excitement and astonishment. From where all of a sudden pops up such mighty expression, truth telling, and wonderful description? It seems to me that until now I have not read such a precise and true story of combat from the War of Independence. . . . You have contributed a valuable asset . . . to our literature at large."
Reviews-
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June 28, 2021
Originally published in Israel in 1962, this searing memoir recounts Rashkes’s experiences on the front lines of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and his severe wounding in a battle outside Jerusalem. In the opening scene, an 18-year-old Rashkes kills an enemy soldier by beating him over the head with a grenade: “The grenade in my hand was red. Blood dripped from it. The warm touch of the blood made me even more insane.” Later, Rashkes describes firing at the enemy with a machine gun: “A man straightened up, clasped his chest, stood stoutly, then sank down. The clasped hands fell to his sides in a rapid, staccato movement, as if they belonged to a mechanical doll whose spring had run down.” Occasionally, the book’s constricted viewpoint expands to include Rashkes’s poetic appreciation of the natural world and the gallows humor of his fellow soldiers, but the mood throughout is overwhelmingly bleak: “No, there was no salvation from heaven. The machine gun was the only thing I trusted.” Though Rashkes’s impressionistic style successfully evokes the chaos and terror of combat, readers less familiar with the events described will wish for more historical context. Still, this is a powerful portrait of what it feels like to go to war.
