Ben Ehrenreich is the author of The Way to the Spring as well as Desert Notebooks, an American Book Award winner, and two novels, Ether and The Suitors. His journalism has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, and The London Review of Books among other publications, and has been honored with a National Magazine Award.
“Ben Ehrenreich’s The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in
Palestine is a heartbreaking account of the brutal and often
surreal realities of life under the Israeli occupation. After
reading it, you don’t know whether to despair at the callousness
and self-righteousness of human beings, or to wonder at their
resilience and creativity.” —Yuval Noah Harari, The Guardian, Best
Books of 2016
“The Way to the Spring is a riveting and powerful work . . . .
Readers near and far who seek greater understanding of how
Palestinians live—and the violence they endure—are well served by
Ehrenreich’s book.” —Haaretz
“Ehrenreich's haunting, poignant and memorable stories add up to a
weighty contribution to the Palestinian side of the scales of
history.” —New York Times Book Review
“An impassioned and humane story.” —O Magazine
“An elegant and moving account . . . [Ehrenreich] brings a
novelist’s eye to his subject . . . It should be read by
friends and foes of Israel alike.” —The Economist
“Ben Ehrenreich’s extraordinary new book, The Way to the
Spring, chronicles individual Palestinians who live with this
existential struggle and, in his words, ‘decline to consent to
one’s own eradication, to fight actively or through deceptively
simple acts of refusal against powers far stronger than oneself.’
The timing of this particular kind of work could not be better.”
—The Brooklyn Rail
“A devastating portrait of unending turbulence in Palestine.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Teeming with heartbreak, irony, and intimate moments of joy . . .
[Ehrenreich] paints a vivid portrait of life in three locations:
the village of Nabi Saleh, where families have been protesting
weekly for the right to use a spring that was theirs until Israeli
settlers claimed it, and are consistently met with force; the city
of Hebron, a puzzle box of checkpoints and segregated zones, and a
powder keg of Jewish and Palestinian resentments; and the village
of Umm al-Kheir, where a way of life is quietly dying in the shadow
of ever-expanding settlements. With a journalist’s keen eye for
detail and a novelist’s ardor for language and its ability to move
people, Ehrenreich will incite renewed compassion in his
readers.” —Publishers Weekly
“Ben Ehrenreich’s rendition of the Palestinian experience is
powerful, deep and heartbreaking, so much closer to the ground than
the Middle East reporting we usually see. I wish there were more
writers as brave.” —Adam Hochschild
“As heart-breaking as it is, The Way to the Spring is also a
strangely joyful book, because Ehrenreich grasps the essence of the
Palestinian struggle: not Islam, or even nationalism, but the
stubborn refusal of injustice, the restless search for ‘how it
would feel to be free,’ as Nina Simone said. The Way to the Spring
is more than a work of journalism. It is a freedom song, burning
with humanity.” —Adam Shatz
“Though often framed as a ‘foreign policy problem,’ Palestine is a
land of miracles and wonders, with ordinary men and women who
‘decline to consent to [their] own eradication’ struggling against
a vast landscape to live free lives one day at a time. The land and
its people exert an uncanny attraction; everyday struggles achieve
an uncanny beauty. In The Way to the Spring, Ben Ehrenreich shapes
the uncanny into words and into stories. This is a compelling,
essential book.” —Mark Danner
“Sets a new standard for mainstream reporting on Palestine:
informed, enlightening, open-hearted. Ehrenreich illuminates
the daily human experience of Occupation through the nuances
of resistance and solidarity.” —Sarah Schulman
“In The Way to The Spring, Ben Ehrenreich accomplishes an
extraordinary feat of journalism. His portraits of
Palestinian resistance are luminous; his writing subtle,
meticulously documented and deeply human; showing the nuanced
empathy that slashes through the best funded government propaganda.
This is a necessary book.” —Molly Crabapple
“The myriad ordeals suffered by the Palestinian people during the
last eighty years are minutely reported here. It’s a chronicle of
their daily lives. Read it! It recognises and respects hope.” —John
Berger
“It is all too easy to become overwhelmed by the glaring injustice
and the difficulties a traveler encounters in the territories
occupied by Israel but Ben Ehrenreich resists the temptation. He
remains enraged but lucid, eloquent and insightful. Of the
voluminous amount of writing about the occupation this is one to
treasure. He retains an intimacy with his subject without losing
his critical distance. So much has been written about the
occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel but rarely with
such vividness, eloquence and success in illuminating complex
historical and political realities. This is a superbly intelligent,
informative and critical book about one of the fundamental issues
of our time.” —Raja Shehadeh
“I really enjoyed The Way To The Spring, which is full of close
attention, humane understanding, committed research and memorable
novelistic detail. It expresses not just the military and
weaponised elements of life under siege and occupation but also the
emotional violence wrought on women, children and men who must live
in constant fear. Ehrenreich is excellent on the nuances of
suffering and survival, which emerge because this is a book which
takes a long view, sticking close to its central characters over
time, a face, a name and a personality to a situation that is more
commonly represented through two minute news reports. The book is
to be read with acceptance, subtlety and an open mind—just as it
was written.” —Bidisha
Ask a Question About this Product More... |