A novel about Israeli soldiers occupying fort in S. Lebanon in the late 1990's, and the mother's movement, which argued that more of their soldier-sons were dying needlessly than individuals being saved in Israel by the occupation. As an anti-war novel, this ranks up there with The Things That They Carried and Matterhorn.
Highly recommended.
4 star ( )

In a word, Beaufort is gritty. The military outpost Beaufort is a living nightmare for Israeli soldier Liraz, (better known as Erez), but yet he must defend it to the death. Twenty-one year old Erez commands the defense with thirteen boy-soldiers with insane courage, sharp wit and fierce loyalty. All around this crumbling and ancient fortress unseen enemies hide just waiting for the right moment to strike. And strike, they do. Erez is witness to death, up close and personal. In order to cope he and his men play a macabre game called "What He Can't Do Anymore" where, when a soldier loses his life in battle, the survivors list all the things their fallen comrade will never do again. It's a crude way of acknowledging his death as reality. By the end of Beaufort you will swear Leshem simply interviewed the real Erez and wrote it all down, word for word. Erez, crude and passionate, walks out of the pages in a blaze of glory and his words burn in the brain long after the last page is turned. I can why they made this into a movie. ( )

Beaufort by Ron Leshem is a riveting story about a company of Israeli soldiers who are manning a isolated IDF outpost atop a hill in a medieval Crusader castle. The time is the year 2000 when Israel was involved in a war with the Hezbollah. This is a very realistic look at modern day warfare, and the author has the ability to plant the reader right in the middle of these young men as we share their day to day world of mental stress, sweat and fear. Both the monotony and the anxiety of a solders’ life is depicted vividly.

Excellently translated from it’s original Hebrew by Evan Fallenberg, the story unfolds through the eyes of the main character, a young platoon leader called Liraz “Erez” Liberti . His descriptions of the endless conversations that the soldiers use to not only relieve the mind-numbing boredom and their homesickness, but also to help break the tension of being under the constant threat of death shows how these man have created their own world and part of their private world is their ever evolving language that is laced with black humor and all things sexual.

The writing is exceptional and as it is based on true events at times it’s hard to remember that this is a fictional novel not a personal memoir. Beaufort is a book that I found emotional draining yet so incredibly real that I feel that I have a much clearer insight into the thoughts and feelings of not just Israeli soldiers, but young men from all nations who are sent off to war. ( )

סיפור מבריק על מבצר הבופור, אהבתי מאוד את הספר וממליץ על קריאתו, בעברית הוא נקרא "אם יש גן עדן". ממולץ!

Far superior to the already powerful film adaptation I recently saw (thank you BBC4!) - The main protagonist - Liraz - a young infantry Lieutenant, finds himself in a position of command at the remote IDF outpost atop the hill at Beaufort - a medieval Crusader fortress ruin - in turn of the century south Lebanon. It is the weeks leading up to Israel's final withdrawl from this front. After a lengthy period of disillusionment and despair at the regular losses for those 'back home' starts to pervade the surroundings at Beaufort, young Liraz's own certainties start to evaporate just as the increasing isolation is felt in the fog and the rain... He only wants to lead his men the way he knows is right, and circumstances are fast overtaking him. "They say we took this mountain for nothing, that we didn't need it, all those who died here...took it for nothing??"

Ron Leshem's writing has the dialogue and the description to set the scene with authenticity. The men of the warren-like 'underground on a mountain top' outpost are all waiting for something. For leave, for their girlfriend, for their dreams of breakfast, for the end? The book has the feel of a thriller, as the tension rises and closes in... Quite an intense read. ( )