The Last Interview

brought, arranged them in the living room and the bedroom, put up a small shelf in the work corner, and placed Zorba the Greek, The Book of Tao, and the picture of Mayan on it. There’s a hint of a smile in the corner of her mouth. Not an actual smile. Definitely not laughter. More an inclination of the mouth that hints at an inclination of the soul toward goodness. I said to her: Now it’s just you and me, I asked her: Don’t leave me. I took out my laptop, plugged it in, and opened the document that contained my answers to the surfers’ questions. I thought to myself that this would probably be my last interview, and that’s good. I pushed the little square on the side of the screen all the way up to reach the beginning so I could go over what I’d written. Then I changed my mind.

No. I won’t rewrite, won’t rethink, won’t embellish. Not this time.

I attached the document to an e-mail and addressed it to the site editor.

I took a long, deep breath, the way you do before jumping off a roof—and sent it.

CREDITS

“Islands in the Stream” lyrics on this page, words and music by Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb

Copyright (c) 1983 by Universal Music Publishing International MGB Ltd., Redbreast Publishing Ltd., Songs of Universal, Inc. and Crompton Songs

All Rights for Universal Music Publishing International MGB Ltd. and Redbreast Publishing Ltd. Administered by Universal Music - Careers

All Rights for Crompton Songs Administered by Songs of Universal, Inc.

International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard LLC.

Lyrics on this page from “Ne me quitte pas” by Jacques Brel, 1959.

Lyrics on this page by Alon Oleartchik.

ESHKOL NEVO, born in Jerusalem in 1971, is one of Israel’s most successful living writers. His novels have all been bestsellers in Israel and published widely in translation. His novel Homesick was long-listed for the 2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; World Cup Wishes was a finalist for the 2011 Kritikerpreis der Jury der Jungen Kritiker (Austria); Neuland was included in the Independent’s 2014 Books of the Year in Translation; and Three Floors Up (Other Press, 2017) will be adapted for film by the acclaimed Italian director Nanni Moretti in 2020. Nevo owns and co-manages the largest private creative writing school in Israel and is a mentor to many up-and-coming young Israeli writers.

SONDRA SILVERSTON has translated the work of Israeli fiction writers such as Etgar Keret, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Zeruya Shalev, and Savyon Liebrecht. Her translation of Amos Oz’s Between Friends won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction in 2013. Born in the United States, she has lived in Israel since 1970.