The People of Forever are not Afraid

A searing novel

Catherine Taylor, Guardian

In a humorous and beguiling deadpan, Boianjiu conveys the fleeting, vanishing experience of hovering between adolescence and adulthood, at the same time as providing a rare portrait of young Israelis being minced through military service

Robert Collins, Sunday Times

More full of life than any young writer I’ve come across in a long time.

Nicole Krauss, author of THE HISTORY OF LOVE

Reads like it was written in bullets, tear gas, road flares and love. I demand another book from her, immediately.

Alexander Chee, author of EDINBURGH

Unique and piercing... Reading it feels like having your heart sawn in two.

Etgar Keret, author of SUDDENLY, A KNOCK ON THE DOOR

The focus of Boianjiu’s book isn’t those horrible events: it is the tension that exists just outside the line of fire, the moment before a crisis erupts. Boianjiu’s best writing happens as the book progresses, when the teens let their minds wander into what they have experienced, and imagine an apocalyptic future for their country

Sheera Frenkel, The Times

This unflinching debut novel depicts with depth and acuity the disorientating effects of fear on young minds... The girls are often lost for words, but the author successfully finds a voice to express the dehumanising horror of warfare in this fragmented plot held together with a passionate, poetic eloquence

Anita Sethi, Observer

A memorably bold novel... Somewhere between the sardonic humour of Etgar Keret and the epic storytelling of David Grossman, Boianjiu has created a brave, beautiful, political literature that is entirely her own

Catherine Taylor, Sunday Telegraph

Remarkable…The People of Forever Are Not Afraid is a fierce and beautiful portrait of the damage done by war

The Washington Post

A dark, riveting window into the mind-state of Israel's younger generation, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid marks the arrival of a brilliant writer

Wall Street Journal

[Boianjiu’s] voice is distinct. It’s confident, raw, amusing — a lot like her women

New York Times

In this Bildungsroman, life in the army initiates a metamorphosis from girl to woman…Boianjiu’s depiction of…the psyches of these young women is fascinating… The prose [reads] alternately like a nightmare and a dream, but this feverish indecision is what gives it its power

Economist

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid is... carefully wrought, consciously structured, creatively imagined

The New Republic

With its blend of brutal hilarity and heart-stopping anguish, this is a brilliant debut novel

Boston Globe

Stunning…[a] beautifully rendered account of the absurdities and pathos inherent to everyday life in Israel

Los Angeles Review of Books

Boianjiu’s searing debut…draws from the author’s own experiences to render the absurdities of life and love on the precipice of violence

Vogue

In her riveting debut novel, 25-year-old Shani Boianjiu gives a rare insider glimpse at what it’s like to be a girl coming of age in the famously fierce Israeli Defense Forces

Marie Claire

Honest... Shani Bioanjiu has given us a valuable addition to our understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict

New Internationalist