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Netalie Gvirtz
A screenwriter, journalist, and editor, Netalie Gvirtz is the author of two novels, and seven books for children and young adults. In 2017, she was awarded The Devorah Omer Prize for Literature by the Israel Ministry of Science and Culture.
Editor-in-Chief of the leading children's magazine Adam Tsair, Gvirtz also writes content for science museums and international exhibitions.
Netalie Gvirtz was born in 1980 in Tel Aviv, and still resides there with her family.
Title: The Volunteer
Novel
Publisher: Keter
Year: 2021
304 pp.
Translation rights: World
Audio visual rights: World.
Translation: Partial English translation by Yardenne Greenspan
Mira Åberg has an important mission. Tasked by her recently deceased mother, the mission takes her from her native Sweden to Israel, to volunteer at Kibbutz Sadot—as her mother did, four decades earlier. The kibbutz offers a warm welcome, going so far as to re-open, just for Mira, its long-defunct volunteering program.
Knowing little about Israel, Mira is unprepared for Kibbutz Sadot. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she moves into the old and crumbling accommodation for volunteers, sharing the space with laborers from Thailand. Around her, whispered secrets in Hebrew escape her comprehension.
She has just one chance to find out the truth about the dark deed done to her mother long ago, between the orange trees and the barn. To guide her mission, Mira has a map, that her mother drew for her from her sick bed in a trembling hand, and a list of five men. One of these is her biological father. But there is a problem: no one ever taught Mira how to fight back, or what revenge should look like…
An immersive and breathtaking novel, The Volunteer pivots around a unique hero for our time, striving to reveal secrets from the past and to gain control of her future. On publication, The Volunteer received rave reviews and warm public praise.
Critical praise
A witty and exciting Israeli thriller, Netalie Gvirtz’s novel resurrects past fantasies, of female kibbutz volunteers—and of teasing the reader. This is an impressive book, revealing above all a passion for writing and a literary curiosity that one does not see every day.
Ynet
The Volunteer, by the successful young writer Netalie Gvirtz, is a book that will stay with you. The plot of The Volunteer unfolds in the form of a secret atop a secret—a secret that Gvirtz hides from the reader… Out of this novel's refinement and restraint comes one of the most important statements about #MeToo to date in Hebrew …an important book that will stay with the reader long after turning the last page.
Yediot Ahronoth
Gvirtz clears challenging literary hurdles with ease. Evading stereotypes of kibbutz life, she spins a witty and realistic tale, the pastoral setting of the novel concealing horrible past deeds.
Israel Hayom
[The Volunteer] is fascinating like Swedish television detective series, fun like ABBA's songs—and much better quality than IKEA
MAKO
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