Praise

There isn’t a straightforward way to reflect a world of utter confusion, looming violence and apartheid when growing up in it still makes friendship, love and joy available to you. In a way, one has to be a kind of permeable mirror, reflecting without diffusion, but also changing as it processes what it reflects.  This is precisely what Yaara Lahav Gregory has achieved in her bildungsroman, following the story of Abbie who grows up in the 60’s and 70’s in a kibbutz in northern Israel, sees her first love join the army and become radicalised, her mother seek peace and freedom in England and her community split between reactionary views on nationhood and a human rights stand.

The river Jordan, as an image of history which cannot be abated, flows unnervingly close to an old Palestinian village, now completely deserted, on the outer boundaries of the kibbutz. The children go from swimming in the river to witnessing the aftermath of history gone utterly wrong. They have no language yet to articulate what they experience, and some grow up borrowing the ready-made narratives of the Israeli settlers. Some, like Abbie, join protest marches and attempt to articulate a better version of national identity and Jewishness, one that doesn’t involve dilapidation, discrimination and xenophobia.

 (Ioana Morpurgo, writer, January 2024)

***

I have just finished this quite special, unusual book. I love the way it brings politics and the personal together so sensually: its enlivening to engage with the deep felt conditioning, curiosity and passion of young minds tusselling with pressing issues within their friendships.
The thread of loving exploration with its twists and turns of self doubt, elation and sacrifice – is this not the exact metaphor we need to trust when staring at events in the landscape of the novel?
Yaara, I have learnt, been entertained, moved and energised. Its helped me understand and talk further with Jewish friends and people I love who work for peace for Palestinians. It brings me closer to acceptance of a more emotionally complex, long term hopeful solution.
Love and thanks to you.
 
(Sarah Hopkins, former fiction editor of Spare Rib magazine, November 2023)
 
***
 
Night Swimming in the Jordan is a beautiful, compelling and important novel, which explores the political landscape of 1970s Israel through the story of a young girl in a Kibbutz community. Abbie – earnest, bookish and romantic – is growing up amid the heat and dust of the Jordan Valley, a simmering cauldron of socialist ideology, where the threat of war is ever-present, and history casts a very large shadow. A heart-breaking love story told with a powerful sense of time and place, it shows the effect of dogma and religious conflict on individuals and families. In a world that seems torn apart by difference, this novel is both necessary and timely.

(Sophie Pierce, writer and broadcaster)

***

A wise and daring novel that sensitively explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, told by Abbie, growing up on a kibbutz and drawn into the waters of youthful desire and politics. Swept along in the maelstrom that engulfs her family and friends as they struggle to find stability, it will be her daughter, Yasmin, who tries to unravel the past. Yaara Lahav Gregory sheds humane light on this important subject, which she understands because she has lived through it.

(Rebecca Gethin, poet and novelist)

***

This is a deeply satisfying read, a compelling depiction of a growing girl’s world infused with finely textured detail. The reader is plunged into Abbie’s life in the kibbutz, her first love affairs and her dawning realisation of political differences. Set in both Israel and England, Night Swimming in the Jordan defies category: it is a coming of age novel, a multi-generational saga, an exploration of the way in which ideology and nationalism can define individual lives. The cast of Night swimming are so fully realised you can feel their blood flowing in your veins, share their suffering and celebrate their small victories.

(Anna Lunk, author of Amie’s Rest)

***

In Night Swimming in the Jordan Lahav Gregory opens the door on a world under-represented in fiction. Hers is a sensitive coming-of-age story told with real warmth about a young girl hungry to explore everything the world has to offer beyond the confines of the kibbutz. But as she begins to enjoy the thrills of first love, political unrest rumbles louder in the wings, and the events of one protest march will send shockwaves across the continent for decades to come. What is most striking about this novel is its heady sense of place, which transports the reader to 1970’s Israel in a way that I have yet to encounter in trade fiction.

(Delphine Gatehouse, Associate Editor at Daniel Goldsmith Associates)

***

I was particularly impressed by Abbie as a narrator and the sense of setting in Night Swimming […] One of the scenes that stayed with me is the scene at night where Abbie and Micah meet an Arab man on the edge of the deserted village. The tension clearly transpires in the subtle way the characters react, with Micah’s shoulder moving closer to Abbie’s. Atmosphere is in the details and I believe you achieved this wonderfully in ‘Night Swimming’.

(Lorena Goldsmith, Founder, Daniel Goldsmith Associates)

***

I love the high-concept for this novel – 1970’s Israel is potentially tricky to recreate authentically, but the author paints a wonderful and evocative landscape that really pulls the reader into her world. The daily life of the Kibbutz she depicts is fascinating and the author seamlessly weaves a story integrating the characters’ personal lives with an extremely politically-charged atmosphere.

(Carla Josephson, Editorial Director at Borough Press)

***

I find this a very accomplished novel, which deals with a wide range of emotions and issues, both personal and political. The author writes extremely well and demonstrates great confidence in weaving the story through time slip and different locations. The result is a compelling narrative, in an authentic historical setting.

(Robin Wade, Wade and Co Literary Agency)