And it was morning

The audiobook And It Was Morning, written by Sayed Kashua, translated by Šárka Doležalová, read by Petr Florián, and directed by Jakub Tabery. This extraordinary book's protagonist is an Arab journalist who was educated in Israeli schools. He writes in Hebrew and works as a reporter for an Israeli newspaper. His nationality gives him access to the Arab community, and he provides his newspaper with regular reports on events in the West Bank. But after two days of violent clashes, during which the Israeli army suppresses Palestinian demonstrations, he is confronted with the question of his personal identity. His report is critical, and he loses his standing in the newsroom, coming to the conclusion that criticism of the Israeli government is the exclusive privilege of Jews. In an attempt to discover who he really is, the hero of the book moves back to the Arab village he came from with his wife and child. But he soon realises that he is an outsider there too. Although he and his wife are atheists, they find themselves in an environment of religious fundamentalism; his wife, accustomed to European clothing from her time in Jerusalem, is forced to cover her head, and the village is full of religious animosity, which is exacerbated by feelings of hostility towards the state of Israel. His situation worsens when, without any explanation, the village is hermetically sealed off by Israeli tanks, and the electricity is cut off, which in turn causes food and water supplies to dwindle. In this extreme situation, much like in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the bonds of civilisation begin to break down, and barbarism takes over. The book's hero has a number of autobiographical traits. Sayed Kashua himself worked for Israeli newspapers and television, and his reflection on the conflicting situation of dual loyalty and the identity crisis that his situation as a Hebrew-writing Arab journalist brought him is extraordinary. He finds his second-class status in Israeli society insulting, but at the same time, he knows he is much better off than Arabs living outside of Israel. Kashua, torn between his Arab origins and the Israeli culture he has adopted, strives for understanding between the two warring ethnic groups in his articles, novels, and television scripts. A year ago, however, disgusted by a new round of violence, he moved to the USA, where he lectures on Hebrew literature. Nevertheless, his testimony about the complicated and tragic relationship between Arabs and Jews, critical of both sides, makes him one of the most interesting contemporary Hebrew and Arab authors. His books have never been translated into Arabic. SAYED KASHUA Sayed Kashua (born in Tira in 1975) is one of the most significant contemporary Hebrew-writing novelists. In his books, which often bear an autobiographical trace, he describes the personal experience of an Israeli Arab, a contradictory identity, and the conflict between tradition and modernity within Palestinian society. He is also known as a columnist for the newspaper Haaretz and the screenwriter of the successful Israeli television comedy series Arab Labour. His debut novel, Dancing Arabs (2002, Czech edition 2016), and the following three novels, Second Person Singular (2010, Czech edition 2014), And It Was Morning (2014, Czech edition 2017), and Track Changes (2017, Czech edition 2019), have been published in Czech. A selection of Kashua's newspaper columns was published in a book titled Native (2015). The globally successful book Dancing Arabs, along with Second Person Singular, became the basis for a 2014 feature film. Sayed Kashua and his family have lived in the United States since 2014, where he lectures at the University of Illinois. Sayed Kashua has received a number of prestigious awards, including Italy's Grinzane Cavour Prize for his first novel (2004), the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize (2005), the Lessing Prize for Criticism (2006, Germany), the Bernstein Prize (Israel), and the Prix des Lecteurs du Var (2012, France).