A twenty-year-old Jewish Libyan woman search for her own identity during the Holocaust.

What is it about?

Fire, wind, water, and earth are the four primary elements in Yossi Sucary’s latest novel Benghazi—Bergen-Belsen2—the canvas upon which he draws the portrait of a twenty-year-old Jewish Libyan woman, Silvana Hajaj. It is neither a vague nor impersonal portrait, but rather a specific study of a young woman whose circumstances compel her to question her own identity and unearth her true voice from her muddied soul. It is also a portrayal of the Jewish Libyan community that for centuries accommodated the whims of its rulers; when the merry-go-round suddenly stopped, it lost its footing.

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Photo by Marie Bellando-Mitjans on Unsplash

Photo by Marie Bellando-Mitjans on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The hermeneutic process of Benghazi—Bergen-Belsen proposed in this article is unique as it includes two perspectives. The first looks at the textual world as an “entity”— the “objective” physical spaces, places, languages, and nationalities. It is where events occur, the topographical, chronological, social, and cultural data whose underlying information is collected from both extra- and intra-textual sources. The second looks at the textual world as an “order.” It is a “subjective” point of view found in the way the main character – Silvana Hajaj - organizes physical- spatial and cultural-social presences and translates them into a mental and conceptual presence. The link between the two perspectives in the novel is found in the questions of identity raised by Silvana and through which she connects to the world and to herself.