Shores Never Reached

By Ruth Borman

Amid the struggle to build the fledgling state of Israel, Ronni and Gabriel come together, two strong personalities with different ideals and aspirations, sprung from the same Mediterranean culture; two fierce individualists who passionately yearn to be one body and soul; two separate lives that meet for brief, eternal moments. What calamity, they ask in their fervent embrace, could ever divide them? The beginning of this intense and gripping love story is set in Israel of the 1950s against the background of the historic and thrilling happenings of that first decade of the country's development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9652293202
• ISBN13: 9789652293206
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Gefen Books
• Length: 184 Pages

Customer Reviews

Exploring the Deep and Winding Caverns of the Human Heart

Ruth Borman captures the reader's attention with the exciting life of Ronni, a young Israeli sabra, who is in her early twenties. She will be discharged from the Israeli Defense Forces in a few weeks and looks forward to being a civilian again. She is recovering from a painful love affair and is anticipating her new job as teacher at an elementary school. She was lucky to receive impeccable references and to snare this coveted position. After returning home one night from a friend's wedding, Ronni is surprised to discover a stranger, a handsome Israeli lawyer, Gabriel Zadok, waiting to meet her. Gabriel is an enigma, a Marcello Mastroianni look alike, who has a regal bearing, charming smile, and speaks to Ronni as if he knew her all her life. His preconceived notions about what she is like creates both intrigue and tension within their relationship. They clash in so many ways ... yet ... Ronni ends up sharing a late-night rendevous at a pizzeria and an intimate walk on the beach with him. To her surprise, they had more in common than she realized: both grew up in Haifa, attended the same schools, and even lived within the same general neighborhood, although they have a seven year age gap. After a blazing and satisfying love affair filled with upheavals: Gabriel drops a bomb. Out of the clear blue, he shockingly breaks off their "unofficial" engagement. It is due to a valid reason one which makes him look like a martyr, a saint. The reader will be amazed to discover what it is. The author's creativity and genius shine. Her imagination went into overdrive In this book, the author explores the depths of the man-woman relationship with creativity, clarity, imagination, sensitivity, heated emotions and passion. These two young Israelis from very different social backgrounds meet, clash, collide and then fall in love. They engage in a torrid love affair that is suddenly broken off. They live parallel lives and meet forty years later, to answer the age old question, can they resolve, make peace with the deep and everlasting pain which caused their breakup? After the breakup, Ronni was devasted, moved to London and married Mike Evans, a warm and gentle soul with a solid reliable profession: cardiac surgeon. Within seven years, they had three children. Gabriel became ancient history, a distant memory, some of which she shared with Mike. They moved back to Israel after Mike received an appointment to teach in the Medical School at Hebrew University. Is it coincidence, chance or fate? Gabriel Zadok also taught at Hebrew University but as faculty in the Law School. Although they all lived in Jerusalem, many years passed before they met. It was forty years after the burning love affair that Ronni got stuck at the airport in Zurich. Who should happen to pass by and offer her help but Gabriel Zadok! They had dinner and he offered her his hotel room to freshen up. Guess what happened next! He was filled with impassioned pleas, explaining and justifying hi

Good read, unusual novel

I got such a kick from reading this book. Very different from the usual love affair genre. The plot is set in young naive Israel of the 1950's, taking place in Tel Aviv-Jerusalem-Haifa, the characters so differ from stereotype novel lovers... And that exchange of letters!! I intend violating copyright laws and to communicate some of those texts to my wife :) Don't miss this good read.

Exciting new novel set in modern Israel.

One read this stirring story, from cover to cover, at one enthralling sitting. The tender love story enfolds, with many surprises, over a period of 40 years in parallel with the development of the nascent state of Israel. The narrative is extremely well plotted and beautifully written; the inclusion of letters and poems adds greatly to the interest and allows the reader a rare insight into the inner world of the lovers.A joy to read! Heartily recommended!