In 2024, I wrote to Sheet about Aharon Appelfeld, one of the main names in 20th century Israeli literature. Today, however, I return to the discussion about the author to highlight the relevance of his work based on some reading suggestions. Born in 1932 in a city near Tchernivtsi, in present-day Ukraine, Appelfeld experienced the trauma of his mother's murder and was taken with his father to a concentration camp, from which he managed to escape alone. He survived the war and persecution as best he could, sometimes hiding in the region's forests, sometimes, thanks to his blond hair and blue eyes, posing as a child of Ukrainian origin and working for peasants in exchange for shelter. These experiences, as well as the difficult process of adapting to life in what would become the State of Israel, where he lived from 1946 onwards, are recurring themes in his work. In "Blooms of Darkness", for example, Appelfeld tells the story of Hugo, an 11-year-old boy who goes through the war hiding in a brothel, taken in by Mariana, a Ukrainian prostitute who had been his mother's school friend. As time passes, the relationship between Hugo and his protector takes on adult contours, acquiring a sexual dimension, and other violence, in addition to war, begins to inform the character's development, highlighting the vulnerability of children in extreme contexts of social collapse and armed conflict. "The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping" is a narrative about Erwin, an orphan teenager who, upon arriving in Palestine after months in a displacement camp in southern Italy, is sent to a kibbutz. There, while he learns to take care of the land, defend himself and speak Hebrew, he also feels pressured to change his name, abandon his mother tongue and erase his European past, revealing some of the dilemmas of survivors who sought to adapt to the culture of a new country. A contemporary of Amós Oz (1939-2018), whose work reflects the experience of the formation of the State of Israel, Appelfeld adopts a different perspective in relation to the author of "Meu Michel" and "Pantera no Porão". Instead of foregrounding Israeli society as such, its literature, even when set in Israel and involving local characters, is dedicated to themes linked to the Jewish experience in Central and Eastern Europe, such as memory, assimilation and its limits in the face of anti-Semitism. One of Appelfeld's novels that masterfully brings together these themes is "Poland, a Green Land", recently translated into English. In it, Appelfeld presents the story of Yaakov Fein, a Tel Aviv store owner and former captain in the Israeli Army. Born in Israel, Yaakov is the son of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors and never felt close to his parents, perhaps because he did not fully understand their experiences in Europe. During his adolescence and youth, Yaakov does everything he can to distance himself from his family. After the death of his parents, he hurries to sell the family apartment, trying to get rid of all the objects, as if, by liquidating material memories, he could also get rid of any opportunity to reflect on the past. As an adult and increasingly distant from his daughters, Yaakov remembers how he treated his family and decides to visit Szydowce, the Fein's hometown. There, surrounded by faces, smells, tastes and melodies that evoke his childhood home in Tel Aviv, he comes to understand his own parents. Yaakov also confronts the fate of the Jews of Szydowce, killed in a massacre that still haunts the city, where many residents continue to harbor the same prejudices as generations past. Here, we realize once again the relevance of Appelfeld's work, which, from a Jewish perspective, highlights an experience similar to that experienced by individuals from so many other diasporic communities, victims of persecution and conflict, for whom returning to their roots has become impossible. LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.