The People of Forever Are Not Afraid: Book summary and reviews of The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid Summary

The searing, riveting debut novel about young women coming of age in the military, from one of the most promising literary talents of her generation.

Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain. Yael trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just before danger erupts.

In a relentlessly energetic voice marked by caustic humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu creates a heightened reality that recalls our most celebrated chroniclers of war and the military, while capturing that unique time in a young woman's life when a single moment can change everything.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid Reviews

"[An] impressive debut." - Publishers Weekly

"Not for the squeamish. Readers will either embrace the complexity of the writing or become maddeningly lost as the author meanders through a hot, dry country devoid of tenderness." - Kirkus Reviews

"Shani Boianjiu has found a way to expose the effects of war and national doctrine on the lives of young Israelis. So her subject is serious, but lest I make her work sound in any way heavy let me point out how funny she is, how disarming and full of life. Even when she is writing about death, Boianjiu is more full of life than any young writer I've come across in a long time." - Nicole Krauss, author of Great House and The History of Love

"The term 'a distinct new voice in literature' had became a cliché long before Shani Boianjiu was born, but there is no better way to describe her unique piercing tone. Reading it feels like having your heart sawn in to two by a very dull knife. The People of Forever are Not Afraid is one of those rare books that truly make you want to cry but at the same time doesn’t allow you to." - Etgar Keret, author of The Nimrod Flipout

"If anyone ever tells you the novel is dead, don't say anything, just give them this book. Shani Boianjiu is an enormous new talent. This is one of the boldest debuts I can think of - it reads like it was written in bullets, tear gas, road flares and love. I demand another book from her, immediately." - Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh

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Shani Boianjiu was born in 1987 in a small town on the Israel/Lebanon border, and she served in the Israeli Defense Forces for two years. Her fiction has been published in Vice magazine and Zoetrope: All Story. Shani is the youngest recipient ever of the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 Award, for which she was chosen by Nicole Krauss. She lives in Israel.