Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo has published a new book, “The Longest Night,” while Israel is still at war and the end of the fighting remains unclear. The novel deals with the collective pain in Israel after the October 7 massacre, and comes at a moment when the country is still processing the events of the Hamas attack.
According to the report, Nevo also met for the first time Noga Kimchi, the woman who inspired one of the story’s central characters. The meeting added another layer to the book’s themes of memory, grief and identification with those affected by the attack.
Nevo said, “I felt that I was with them,” referring to the sense of closeness he experienced while writing. He also raised the broader question that drives the book’s emotional core, asking, “It is time to ask, how do we get through the night and reach the morning?”
The piece frames the novel as part of the ongoing cultural response to the war, with Nevo’s book arriving amid Israel’s continuing search for language to describe the aftermath of October 7.
