What story would a modern-day Scheherazade tell? For David Grossman, the answer is compelling: she tells the story of her fractured land, Israel, through the prism of her family. And the reason she tells it is not to save herself, but to save her second son: a soldier who, at the end of his military service, has signed up at the start of the second intifada for a final operation.

In To the End of the Land, Grossman’s Scheherazade is middle-aged Ora, and her audience is Avram, her one-time lover and the estranged father of her soldier son Ofer. The setting is the Israel Trail, a long-distance path running the length of the country. For Ora, the walk is