The Book of Telling

by Sharona Muir

After her father died, Sharona Muir learned by chance that he had invented Israel’s first rocket. Muir’s parents divorced when she was very young, but she adored the father she saw on Saturday outings. Itzhak Bentov occasionally told stories of his early days in Israel, but it was only after he died that Muir accidentally learned he had been a member of a top-secret group of scientists called Hemmed, which made weapons for Israel’s War of Independence. Amazed by this discovery, Muir traveled to Israel to meet her father’s colleagues, a group of idealistsmany of them refugees from Europewho had been summoned by David Ben-Gurion to create weapons for a new nation. Through the memories they share, Muir comes to know the brilliant, impassioned, and creative young Bentov. She weaves her own memories of him into their stories. As the truths she seeks emerge, Muir elegantly evokes the hubbub of Jerusalem streets, the uncommon lives of her hosts, and the land and skyscapes of the Negev.