Tamara and Her Desires #1006913

Tamara and Her Desires is a moving, poignant story of an epic love born from the
profound scars of second-generation Holocaust survivors.
Tamara, the daughter of Hungarian concentration camp survivors, grows up in an Israeli
village in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet the blooming landscape cannot mask the scorched
earth inside her home: an abusive, hardened mother and a father perpetually lost in the
horrors of Auschwitz. Amid these shadows, Tamara navigates a magical childhood,
evolving from a spirited tomboy into a young woman with an awakening sense of
identity and sexuality that will alter the course of her life.
Uri grows up on a kibbutz founded by Polish and Russian survivors, inheriting a heavy
legacy of silence from parents who are incapable of warmth. He matures into a striking
Sabra (native Israeli)—a gifted athlete and an elite military officer—who hides a deep
abyss behind his disciplined exterior.
When Tamara and Uri meet during their military service, they forge a connection that
transcends words. Recognizing a shared, desperate hunger for the love they were
denied, their souls entwine in a lifelong bond. Navigating tragedy, grief, and a
tumultuous quest for self-fulfillment, their enduring passion becomes their ultimate
sanctuary.
Tamara and Her Desires is a powerful exploration of a generation’s struggle to forge a
new identity in an emerging nation, and the rare gift of finding oneself entirely within
another. Unforgettable and deeply moving, this is a story that grips the heart and
refuses to let go.
 
Eliezer (Lonka) Gotlib was born in the USSR in 1946 and immigrated to Israel in 1959,
where he was raised on Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot ("the ghettoes' warriors"). He
served for 24 years in the IDF Intelligence Corps, retiring as a Colonel and receiving the
Corps' Prize for Creative Thinking. In his civilian career, he served as a corporate
director in the financial sector and spent 15 years as a senior executive at Israel
Railways, spearheading major national infrastructure projects. A dedicated civic
advocate, he co-founded the public ethics organization Amitai and led it voluntarily for a
decade. His anti-corruption efforts earned the association the President’s Volunteer
Citation and won him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.