S’il a été omis de la filmographie, c’est une preuve supplémentaire que l’Internet est truffé d’erreurs et de balivernes
Tout à fait, soupire le prêtre, mais le public considère cette invention comme une divinité omnisciente qui exige de nous confesser devant elle. (p196)

Votre film m’a émue et m’a donné matière à réflexion mais pourquoi la fin est-elle si obscure et si dénuée de sens ?
(..) La fin représente toujours un compromis entre ce qui a existé et ce qui n’existera jamais (p 252) ( )

A new novel by A. B. Yehoshua is more than just a new book on the shelf. It is a literary event. After all, Yehoshua is one of the leading writers in Israel, often mentioned as one of “three tenors”, along with Amos Oz and David Grossman.

“חסד ספרדי” (“Spanish Kindness”) is the story of Yair Mozes, a veteran film director who is invited to a retrospective of his movies in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He travels there with Ruth, his companion and the lead actress in many of his movies.

In their hotel room hangs a painting of a bare-chested man, with his hands tied behind his back, sucking from a woman’s breast. Mozes is unaware of the Caritas Romana tradition: the story of the daughter who secretly breastfed her incarcerated father to save him from starvation. He is intrigued by the painting because it reminds him of a scene that his one-time screenwriter, Trigano, wanted to shoot in one of their earlier movies. That scene was never shot as Ruth shied away from it at the last moment. That episode caused a break between Mozes and Trigano, who have not spoken to each other in decades.

The scene depicted in the painting continues to haunt Mozes upon his return to Israel, and he seeks to reconcile with Trigano after all these years. This attempt at reconciliation is initially rejected by Trigano but the rapprochement between the two is inevitable. The Caritas Romana plays a role in this process and turns into a “Spanish kindness”, with the two travelling back to Spain to reconstruct the scene in the painting.

In this novel Yehoshua proves that his imaginative writing power has not deserted him in old age (unlike Mozes, who tries but is incapable of shooting new movies). This novel is a enjoyable treat. ( )