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When I Lived in Modern Times Paperback – December 31, 2002

by Linda Grant (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 66 ratings
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Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction

In the spring of 1946, Evelyn Sert stands on the deck of a ship bound for Palestine. For the twenty-year-old from London, it is a time of adventure and change when all things seem possible.

Swept up in the spirited, chaotic churning of her new, strange country, she joins a kibbutz, then moves on to the teeming metropolis of Tel Aviv, to find her own home and a group of friends as eccentric and disparate as the city itself. She falls in love with a man who is not what he seems when she becomes an unwitting spy for a nation fighting to be born. When I Lived in Modern Times is "an unsentimental coming-of-age story of both a country and a young immigrant . . . that provides an unforgettable glimpse of a time and place rarely observed" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Publishing Group
  4. Publication date
    December 31, 2002
  5. Dimensions
    5.34 x 0.71 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0452282926
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0452282926
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A stunning accomplishment…A vivid account of an elusive piece of recent history”
-Chicago Sun-Times

“Informed, intelligent…vital, original. ”
-The New York Times

“Deeply moving…at once a beautifully rendered story of one woman’s coming of age, and a gripping portrait of the last days of British rule. ”
-Boston Globe

“Ms. Grant’s fast-paced novel succeeds on many levels. It recreates the historical era accurately with sophisicated prose and lively jests about the human condition.”
-Dallas Morning News

“Appealing…[When I Lived in Modern Times] offers an unsentimental view of a young woman’s coming-of-age in a paradoxically ancient and newborn land. [A] compelling tale of a Middle Eastern adventure.”
-US Weekly

About the Author

Linda Grant is one of England's leading journalists and writers. The author of three previous books, including The Cast Iron Shore (winner of the David Higham Prize for best first novel of 1995) and Remind Me Who I Am, Again, her acclaimed account of her mother's dementia. When I Lived in Modern Times won the Orange Prize - established in 1996 to honor novels of excellence, originality and accessibility by women writers - in June 2000, and will be her first work of fiction published in the United States.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Publishing Group (December 31, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0452282926
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0452282926
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.34 x 0.71 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 66 ratings

About the author

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Linda Grant

Linda Grant

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Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984. She now lives in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. website lindagrant.co.uk

Fiction

The Cast Iron Shore, Granta Books (London) 1995

When I Lived in Modern Times, Granta Books (London) 2000

Still Here, Little Brown May (London) 2002

The Clothes on Their Backs, Virago Press (London) 2008

We Had It So Good, Virago Press (London) 2011

Upstairs at the Party, Virago Press (London) 2014

The Dark Circle, Virago Press (London) 2016

A Stranger City , Virago Press (London) 2019

Non-Fiction

Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution. HarperCollins (London) 1993

Remind Me Who I Am, Again Granta Books (London) 1998

The People on the Street, a writer's view of Israel, Virago Press (London) 2006

The Thoughtful Dresser, Virago Press (London) 2009

Awards

The Dark Circle

Shortlisted for the Bailey's Prize for Fiction

Jewish Quarterly Prize

Longlisted Walter Scott prize for historical fiction

The Clothes On Their Backs

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008

Winner South Bank Show Award

The People on the Street:A Writer's View of Israel

Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage

Still Here

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2002

When I Lived in Modern Times

Winner, Orange Prize for Fiction 2000

Shorlisted: Jewish Quarterly Prize, Encore Prize

Remind Me Who I Am, Again

Mind Book of the Year 1999

Age Concern Book of the Year 1999

The Cast Iron Shore

David Higham First Novel Prize

Shortlisted Guardian Fiction Prize

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
66 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jeannette Hartman
5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Home in a Displaced World
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2010
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"Scratch a Jew and you've got a story," Evelyn Sert, the main character, tells us on the opening page. The time is April 1946, when "victory hung like a veil in the air, disguising where we might be headed next." The place is Palestine.

Evelyn herself is a mere two generations away from a Latvian shtetl. In England, she feels more Jewish than English. She gets to Palestine pretending to be a Christian tourist. In Palestine, she's continually being mistaken for being English. In Tel Aviv where Evelyn settles, German Holocaust survivors sit in the beachside cafes, wearing black suits, discussing German literature, music, art and culture, trying to recreate the life they knew in Germany. As the pressure for a Jewish state builds and the British evacuate nonessential personnel, an older British woman wails that Palestine has been her home since childhood. "They're sending me back to England. I hardly know it. I'm going into exile, but you people know all about that." Behind her back, a Jewish baker laughs.

This is a beautifully written book. Toward the end of the book, Evelyn says, "Look at it this way, we are the people of the Book. It is the first thousand years of Jewish history and, though we have no second volume for the next two thousand years, each story a Jew tells is part of that book. We have no choice but to listen."
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algo41
4.0 out of 5 stars competent novelist effectively utilizing source material
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2022
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Grant gives life to the Jewish experience in Palestine between WWII and Israeli independence. She is a competent novelist, and is able to draw on source material in the form of letters, memoirs and diaries. Evelyn, the Jewish protagonist, grew up in London, speaking Latvian at home with her immigrant mother; on the surface it would seem she successfully adapted to life in London, but she was uncomfortable enough to illegally move to Palestine after her mother dies, in search of an ethnic identity. There are moral quandaries in the foundation of Israel which Evelyn experiences. She has an Irgun boyfriend who is a sexist, unlike Evelyn and the other Jewish characters – I am unsure why Grant made this choice. Evelyn is the only deeply realized character, while many others are interesting and serve their purpose. I wish my sister had read a book like this before she emigrated for life on a kibbutz, which lasted longer than Evelyn’s stay.

SPOILER ALERT. Evelyn is rather fortuitously able to solve her predicament by quickly seducing her soon to be husband. I enjoyed the parallels to her mother’s life, as well as Evelyn’s return to Israel and her old neighbor, Mrs. Linz.

SOME MEMORABLE PASSAGES. “In a country with its face turned toward the future, our stories sat on our shoulders like a second head, facing the way we had come from.” “Time stopped. It just gave up and stopped dead in its tracks. Nothing happened. It was as if someone had pulled its plug out from the mains. There was nothing to power it forward (when Evelyn is in a safe house).” “We’re (British in Palestine) pretty well living behind barbed wire, as it is. In fact, we’ve rounded ourselves up.” “Yes, that’s what we’ve done. We’re so frightened of the terrorists we’ve put ourselves in protective custody.”
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The Been There Done That Mom
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014
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I read this book for a book club and really enjoyed it. I learned a lot about the formation of the State of Israel and really was taken in by the story. It is well written and easy to read.
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Lynn Labe
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, draws you right in
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2011
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Great account of a part of history that is very much neglected. Also a coming-of-age story and a bit of a spy story as well. Grant is an absorbing writer, at her best, in my opinion, when developing a plot around a compelling character at a particularly interesting point in time. This fine book reflects her talent, I did not want the book to end.
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skl
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2013
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Great read. Loved the subject matter and found that this book was exactly as what the synopsis said. Good book.
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Lynn Adler
5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing literary achievement!
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2001
Idealism and disillusionment, the collisions of past and future are recurrent themes in this novel set in 1946 and 1947 Palestine, where identity is a haphazard commodity. The narrator who chronicles what she calls living history is 20-year-old Evelyn Sert, sometimes called Eve, sometimes Mrs. Priscilla Jones. Unlike many tales of Jewish refugees reclaiming their homeland, Evelyn is not a refugee, but she is a displaced person of sorts. It is right after the war and Evelyn and her mother have survived the long years of the London blitz and rationing.
Growing up in England, the daughter of a woman who has cut ties from her own immigrant family and a shadowy American father only glimpsed through one old photograph, Evelyn is always reminded that she is second class, and the only thing that fiercely endures is her Jewish identity. When her mother dies an early death, her mother's lover, "Uncle Joe", who has fed and clothed them all these years, and fed Evelyn as well on Zionism, encourages her to go to Palestine, and basically pays her off to do so. One senses that it is not entirely out of conviction but a convenient way to get Evelyn out of the way of his real family.
A frustrated artist, she goes to work at the only way she knows how to make a real living, as a hairdresser. In her hairdresser's capacity, she is recruited for mundane underground assignments by the mysterious sexy "Johnny", who becomes her lover. Eventually caught out by the British and forced to leave the country, Evelyn's idealistic dream disintegrates, and that is the tie-in to the book's title, but it does not end there. A mature and wizened Evelyn returns to Israel to live out her twilight years.
The great thing about this story and its strength will probably also cause offense to those expecting heroic characters and lofty moral platitudes. This is an unsentimental description and examination of life under the British Mandate. It is not always a pretty or hopeful picture, although not completely dim. The Jewish characters and the British are equally put under a harsh spotlight. As each tells his or her story, argues over the old and the new world order, and prediction of what will happen when the British leave (the only thing that all parties agree will happen), a picture of a society and a people in transition emerges. The author's research has been done with care and I believe that we get an honest and accurate portrayal.
Finally, this is as much a story about the building of Tel Aviv as it is about the State of Israel. Not surprisingly, it is this city and not Jerusalem that captures Evelyn's imagination. The young shining Tel Aviv, not only stands as a nostalgic historical and cultural remembrance, but also as a fitting metaphor for the modern Jewish city and therefore a new definition of the Jewish people.
21 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

curryplant
5.0 out of 5 stars Great cover
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2023
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One of my favourite books of all time
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Sandwichgirl
4.0 out of 5 stars Fundamentally important book which conveys a lot of truths about ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2016
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Fundamentally important book which conveys a lot of truths about the early history of Israel - and heralds the end of Empire. The protagonist is a really brave young woman who I engaged with on many levels.
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SusieQ
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Condition; Prompt Delivery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2023
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Just what it said on the tin!
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AlexZ
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Fictional Story of the start of the Jewish state
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2022
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This is a really enjoyable story from the perspective of a young woman that really conveys the experiences of a young Jewish immigrant girl who leaves London for the new Jewish State of Israel with all the hopes that generation must have held. Deeply moving. Conveys the innocence, hopes, excitement, alongside the terrorism and anger. A really good read.
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Sue Myring
4.0 out of 5 stars When I lived in Modern Times, Great
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
Loved this book, well written, well observed, humour which helped the story move along. I was pleased to learn more of this part history, and although a novel, I felt it to be well researched and an accurate picture of what was going on at the time.
One person found this helpful
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