“The King David Hotel sprawled at the top of a long, sloping hill. Well before I saw the smoke, I could smell the bitter odour. I could see shards of glass sprayed over the sidewalk and glittering in the noonday sun. … The whole six-storey southwest corner of the King David was gone. Collapsed as if smashed by a giant fist. Broken girders, splintered wood, and shreds of masonry poked out of the chasm. Sections of floor hung down like ripped cloth.”
-Gabriella Goliger, Eva Solomon’s War, p. 241 of advance copy published by Bedazzled Ink.
The above quotation comes from the narrator of Eva Solomon’s War, who is describing what she saw after the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July 1946 by the Irgun. The hotel was built in 1932 and used by the British from 1938. The bombed wing (western portion of south wing) housed the Government Secretariat of the British Mandate for Palestine and the headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. While there is a love story in Eva Solomon’s War, the King David Hotel was not used for lovers’ trysts. Review to come.
King David Hotel southwest corner
Canadian Writers Abroad 