On “The Road to Happiness”

By Moshe Gilad, “Masa Aher”

Tsur Shezaf, in his unique language and style, describes encounters in
the distant deserts of Tibet and Somalia as well as in deserts closer at
hand – the Arab Desert in Jordan, the Sahara, the Sinai and the Negev.
On the background of the awe of the desert, traveling in trains, in
buses, in taxis and in airplanes, Shezaf encounters Berbers, Kashmiris,
Ladaks and Bedouin. Is the desert the arid Tibetan plateau? Or the
wandering sands of the Sahara? Or perhaps it is the dry savannahs of
Somalia during the civil war there when the inhabitants were dying of
starvation? Shezaf, a veteran traveler and an experienced writer, may
already definitely be considered one of the pioneers in the field of
Hebrew travel writing. In his accounts, he develops the description of
the journey as the backbone of the plot and as a literary framework in   its own right. His ability to observe and describe make reading this book engaging and interesting. Tsur Shezaf, who has traveled on the Trans-Siberian railway and followed the Silk Road, knows just what a great traveler is.

 

The Road to Happiness