Central Station

It’s hard to describe Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station, except to say that it is a fascinating study of various humans and non-humans residing—some permanently, some temporarily—in a hot, dusty spaceport/city that has sprung up between Tel Aviv and Jaffa sometime in our future. They confront questions and answers about family, memory, reality, and what is human—and occasionally come up with answers. A wonderfully written, almost hypnotic book.

Central Station would work just as well even if you didn’t read its setting as a future Tel Aviv. This book is a multi-dimensional mosaic enriched by its connection to reality. Central Station is a vast spaceport located across cultural and religious divides, its characters are mostly misfits whose memories and histories connect their stories, give them roots however fragile, and sometimes link them to one another as well. Tidhar’s imagination is always vast in range and scope, and it’s fascinating to watch him balance imagery and metaphor with tech and politics, creating a fractured city of meaning that miraculously… show more.