Author Interview ~ Eva Etzioni-Halevy

Eva Etzioni-Halevy is professor emeritus of political sociology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. A child Holocaust survivor, she spent World War II in Italy, partly in an Italian concentration camp and partly in hiding. She moved to what was then Palestine in 1945.

She lived most of her life in Israel, but spent lengthy stretches of time in the United States and Australia before returning to Israel in 1989, to seek her roots there, and returned to the religious orientation she had previously abandoned.
Eva lives in Tel Aviv with her husband; she has three grown children.




What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

The book is THE SONG OF HANNAH (Plume/Penguin) that has recently hit the US book shelves, which takes the reader back in time for an amazing biblical journey. It traces the lives of two women, Hannah and Pninah, their intricate relations with each other, with the husband they shared, Elkanah, and with Hannah's son, the Prophet Samuel.

It is a tale of passionate scorned love, of betrayal and revenge, but also of redemption through feminine compassion and friendship. It is a sensual and gripping story with several twists, a page turner that has already elicited widespread interest and support among the various groups to which I have given talks about it.

Apart from offering light entertainment, THE SONG OF HANNAH gives voice to women in the Bible. Below it surface lurk feminist messages about strong and intelligent women, who used their strength of character to cope with life in a male-dominated society.


Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

THE SONG OF HANNAH was sitting inside me for years before I began writing, and then it took a few more years before it saw the light of day. It is based on the biblical story (I Samuel) of this man, Elkanah, and his two wives: Pninah, who had many children, but her husband did not love her, and Hannah, who was initially barren, but beloved by her husband. Therefore Pninah provoked her rival to make her angry.

Each year when I heard the story being read in the Synagogue (on the high holidays) I found it deeply troubling. What troubled me was that the scripture shows much sympathy for Hannah the barren woman, but no sympathy at all for Pninah, the unloved one, who is never allowed to give voice or tears to her anguish. It is this sense of injustice done to Pninah that led me to identify with her, and prompted me to take up her cause in a novel.

I had no doubt that both women had shattering experiences. But Hannah's plight was temporary: it dissolved when she obtained the son she craved for, while Pninah was permanently injured. I thought that the women's shattering experiences would have led to shattering responses, and this is the way I decided to structure the novel.

If I could have given The novel a subtitle, it would have been: A Barren woman Shatters Heaven – an Unloved Woman Shatters the Earth. I resolved to make Pninah shatter the earth by finding happiness, even though it was in sin.

Then started the actual writing (which was short) and the rewriting (which seemed almost endless), followed by the quest for a publisher (which coincided with the revising process).

And so, after a very lengthy and difficult pregnancy that lasted several years, THE SONG OF HANNAH was finally born.


Do you experience self-doubts regarding your work?

I have no doubts regarding my project of writing novels about women in the Bible. My soul searching is about the best way to accomplish my aim at the high standard it calls for.


What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

The biggest mistake I made was seeking publication for too early a draft of my manuscript. I found this an error that was difficult to avoid: self criticism was (and still is) one of the most difficult tasks in my writing process.


What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

To hone my writing skills and submit my work only after I had done so. The problem with this advice is, though, that improvement is a never-ending process, and how is one to know when one has crossed a reasonable stretch of the way?


What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

To give up.


What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

To beware of charlatans who present themselves as publishers, and confine my search to reputable ones, as I finally learned to do.



Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

For me, the greatest difficulty is that I write for readers in a country (The United States), in which I don't reside, as I live in Israel. This is a constant setback for me in comparison to other writers of novels on similar topics. At the same time, I could not write biblical novels, whose plots are set in The Holy Land, without actually living in that land and deriving inspiration from it. This is an advantage that in some measure counterbalances the geographical distance from my readers.

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

It may sound trite, but it's the truth: My all-time favorite is the Bible. This is not one book but a set of books, which I read and re-read many times over not merely for religious reasons but for pure enjoyment. I could not be a biblical novelist, unless I loved the Bible itself more than any other books.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

So far, my only "child" in the area of biblical fiction is THE SONG OF HANNAH, and like every mother, I am proud of my offspring.

Why? Because I believe that I have written a sensual novel for light entertainment, which is yet faithful to the spirit of the Bible. What makes me particularly proud is that many readers told me that once they began reading the book they could not put it down.

Best of all: quite a few women readers told me that they related it to their own life experiences.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

No. Although my journey to publication was arduous, I have been very fairly treated: As a complete outsider, with no connections at all, I did find a wonderful agent and the best possible editor and publisher.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

I get up around 6.30 in the morning, and settle down to writing almost immediately. I take various breaks for other concerns, but on and off I write until 10.30 in the evening.

My computer is endlessly tolerant and doesn't mind all the erasing and rewriting, which is most of what I do from morning until night. His (or is it her?) patience matches my stamina, so we are reasonably well-matched writing partners. It's hard to imagine how the truly great writers managed without this tool!

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

I would go for Jane Austen's ability to find the perfect balance between romance and critical social commentary.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

My dream is that people will like to read THE SONG OF HANNAH. But also I dream that thereby they will be "lured" into the world of the Bible, and into making the acquaintance of the strong and wonderful women who populated it.


Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Never.

But over the years I vacillated between different types of writing. For many years I was a Professor of Sociology and wrote academic books. Then I switched over to the writing of biblical fiction, which now I cannot imagine living without.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

My favorite part is the writing itself. The least favorite part is getting dismissive comments based on misunderstanding, rather than constructive criticism.

How much marketing do you do? Any advice in this area?

I do try to promote THE SONG OF HANNAH in a variety of ways. We live in a world in which publicity is the lifeblood of book circulation. Without it, a writer might as well be (metaphorically speaking) dead.

Which brings me to my advice. I cannot remember where it comes from, but I gladly pass it on: the only bad publicity is one's obituary.

Parting words?

If you do get around to reading my book, please let me have your (constructive) comments. Here is my e-mail: ehzioe@mail.biu.ac.il I promise to respond.