A guaranteed instant classic work of post-war fiction, All We Cannot Leave Behind is “a masterwork of interwoven war narrative with the full framework of life in its shadow –loves, letdowns, desires, and failures.” – Aviram Barkai, bestselling author of On the Edge.

Israel, 1975. Following the sobering events of the Yom Kippur War, a budding romance comes to an end like a slap in the face.

The woman is a beautiful, bright foreigner, challenging this man, a young officer, newly discharged from military service yet still burdened by memories of fighting on the front lines in a desperate war. Through their relationship, he confronts truths about his inner war—and the loss of innocence he had to endure.

Israel, 1999. More than twenty years have passed since the end of that war, but the man can still feel its echoes in his quiet civilian life. Driven by a desperation for something he cannot describe, the man enters a complicated love affair with a married woman. Over their mutual love of poetry and literature, they each explore the guilt, loneliness, and personal sacrifices they had to bear. Even though he is no longer a young officer, the passion of his new lover reopens his old scars of war, as he confronts all that he could not—must not—leave behind.