Book Reviews,  FICTION,  Israel,  Prize Winner

A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev *** (of 4)

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The story of the use of homing pigeons during Israel’s War for Independence, the breed of people that train and keep them, and a moving pair of love stories, one among 1948 pigeon keepers and one contemporary.  Underlying the plot is a philosophical analysis of the pull of home.  Pigeons return to home and people must find and define theirs.   The plot sometimes sinks beneath the author’s poetry.  His full literary intent is probably best explained by an literature professor, which I’m not.  Won Israel’s Brenner Prize.