Mija

Mija, the only son of Gershom Wald and the former husband of Atalia, is a dead but consequential presence in the novel: his wartime death has left his father and widow alone, binding their household together through bereavement. His absence is made tangible both by the family relationships others name and by the striking lack of any photograph of him in the library.

Identity and Background

Atalia tells Shmuel that she was married to Mija for a year and a half. Mija was Gershom Wald’s only son; after his death, Wald became Atalia’s former father-in-law. Atalia identifies herself as his former daughter-in-law, defining her connection to the household through a marriage that ended in loss.

The brief account supplies no further details of Mija’s life, but establishes the central facts that govern his place in the story: he was a husband and only child, and he died in the war. Atalia’s measured, almost delicate manner as she explains this history contrasts with the blunt finality of the loss she describes.

Death and Its Aftermath

When Shmuel asks when and how Mija died, Wald gives a precise date and location: the night of April 2, 1948, near Sha'ar HaGai, on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road. He answers in a dry, flat voice, then falls silent for a long while. His closed eyes and the slow movement of an empty tea glass across his desk accompany the effort of answering; after a sudden tremor and a barely audible murmur, he turns back to an ordinary household task, telling Shmuel to feed the aquarium fish and then leave him alone.

Atalia describes the aftermath as a shared condition: after Mija died, she and Wald were left alone. The loss therefore marks both a family rupture and the basis of their continuing connection. Wald is no longer simply her father-in-law, and she no longer his daughter-in-law in the present tense; their relationship persists in the altered form created by Mija’s death.

Presence Through Absence

Shmuel notices that the library contains hundreds of books but not a single photograph of Mija. The absence prompts him to wonder about the family life that preceded the tragedy: whether Atalia and Mija had lived together in her room, and whether Mija and Atalia had mothers. These questions remain his conjectures, not answers supplied by the narrative, but they show how Mija’s unseen past opens a space of speculation in the household.

Mija is thus presented through the traces his death has left rather than through memories or scenes of his life. His missing image, the former kinship between Atalia and Wald, and Wald’s halting response make absence itself part of his characterization: the person is gone, while the relationships and grief organized around him endure.