''Days of Ziklag'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: ''ימי צקלג'', ''Yemei Tziklag'') is a novel by S. Yizhar, first published in 1958. It is widely considered to be one of the most prominent works in

Israeli literature Israeli literature is literature written in the State of Israel by Israelis. Most works classed as Israeli literature are written in the Hebrew language, although some Israeli authors write in Yiddish, English, Arabic and Russian. History Heb ...

. The novel describes 48 days during the 1947–1949 Palestine war in which it follows a squad of

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

soldiers trying to hold a godforsaken post in the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

desert. The story's stream of consciousness focuses on the inner worlds of the soldiers, both during and between battles. The story is based on the real-life battle for Horbat Ma'achaz fought by the

Yiftach Brigade The Yiftach Brigade (also known as the Yiftah Brigade, the 11th Brigade in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War) was an Israeli infantry brigade. It included two Palmach battalions (the 1st and 7th), and later also the 2nd, which was transferred from the ...

in October 1948, although the battle is never mentioned by name. Yizhar received the Israel Prize in 1959 for his novel.

References

1958 novels 20th-century Israeli novels Historical novels War novels Fiction set in 1948 Novels set in Israel {{1950s-hist-novel-stub