In this episode, host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from Yitzhak Gormezano Goren’s Alexandrian Summer, his first novel to be translated into English. In this semi-autobiographical work, Robby, aged ten and accompanied by his parents, leaves his home in Alexandria in 1951 to rejoin his two brothers who had already moved to Israel.

In this extract, three generations of the family are sitting together in their home in Alexandria, reading a letter from Robby’s brothers about what life is like in Israel. Robby’s grandmother thinks it sounds a little primitive:

“They say that people work in construction in Palestine. Yes, even educated boys. A grandson of mine, putting his hand inside the cemento? Wy-di-mi-no!”

André Aciman says in his introduction to the novel, “Alexandrian Summer is a nostalgic, farewell portrait of a world that was fast expiring but still refused to see that history had written it off.”

Text:
Alexandrian Summer by Yitzhak Gormezano Goren. Translated by Yardenne Greenspan. New Vessel Press, 2015.

Music:
Dalida – Salma Ya Salama
Farid Al Atrash – Wayak
Umm Kulthoum – Enta Omri

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish