For eleven years it was quiet around the American author Jonathan Safran Foer. But then he came back in late 2016 with his third, major and extraordinary novel, "Here I Am." "Here I am," in Hebrew "Hineni", Abraham said to God when he asked him to sacrifice his son.
Here I am. But who am I, are we exactly? Who do we want to be? What makes us, and what do we stand for? These questions have occupied Foer in all his books so far. Jacob Bloch, his clever and reflective protagonist, is also preoccupied with them. That Jacob is married to Julia, together they have three sons, and together they slip into a deep, open marital crisis after the discovery of a secret cell phone. But the family crisis is compounded by a political one: there is an earthquake in Israel, and the Israeli state approaches the Jewish diaspora with a request to assist the country. Once again, Jacob must ask himself: what is home? Where is my home? Where do I belong? What is really important in life? And what am I willing to fight for?
"Here I Am" is a touching novel of family, marriage, and separation, but it goes far beyond that: it also describes the struggle for Jewish identity and belonging.
Text source and more information about this event: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/hier-bin-ich/5977/
