New Releases by Amos

This third edition of an established textbook for students of political science presents all the changes made to the United Nations since 1992.

"Perhaps most of the essays in this book are substitutes for stories that I have not managed to write," says Amos Oz in the preface to Under This Blazing Light. Published for the first time in English, this collection of essays reveals the personal and political thoughts of Israel''s most celebrated novelist. The essays in this volume put a unique perspective on the author''s own experiences and development, and reveal a complex and deeply human figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. Oz''s refreshing blend of skepticism and idealism will win for him new readers, while delighting those who will recognize here the qualities evident in his other writings. Relevant in light of recent developments in the Middle East, the topics covered include an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a dispute between "Right and Right"; a look at the meaning of socialism in the Israeli context; reflections on the concept of "Homeland" and on the nature of the Kibbutz; and reflections on the character of Zionism. The essays also include portraits of several Jewish writers and thinkers whose ideas and themes in one way or another have proved influential or determinative for Amos Oz himself. Amos Oz is widely considered to be Israel''s most famous living writer. His fifteen books include My Michael, Touch the Water, Touch the Wind, In the Land of Israel, Black Box, To Know a Woman, and Fima. His work has been translated into twenty-nine languages, and he has received several major literary awards. He is currently a Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University.

"גיבור הספר פנתר במרתף הוא נער המכונה "פרופסור" מפני שאינו מפסיק לבדוק מילים, להפוך אותן, להרכיבן ולסדרן מחדש. בימים של חרדה ושל עוינות הדדית הוא מתיידד עם שוטר בריטי תימהני ומואשם על ידי חבריו בבגידה. בתוך כך הוא מגלה את עצמו מחדש, בודק, מהפך ומרכיב מחדש את עולמו, את יחסו להוריו, לאויב, ולעצמו. זהו סיפור עלילה מרתק, חכם ושובה לב, פרי עטו של אחד מבכירי הסופרים העבריים בימינו." -- מעטפת אחורית

Traduit dans plus de dix pays, Mon Michaël confirme tous les espoirs qu''avait fait naître le premier roman d''Amos Oz, Ailleurs peut-être. Il nous montre Hanna, qui, déçue par son mari, par ses amis, par la vie, devient peu à peu étrangère au monde qui l''entoure. Tout lui paraît atteint d''une implacable érosion à laquelle elle-même ne peut échapper. Dans son journal, qu''elle tient comme pour se prouver sa propre existence, fiction et réalité se mêlent. C''est à travers ces pages d''une langue admirable que nous la voyons s''enliser dans la nostalgie de son enfance en Palestine, dans des fantasmes où deux jumeaux arabes reflètent à la fois ses obsessions sexuelles et les terreurs d''un peuple qui ne peut vivre en paix. La guerre du Sinaï est proche. Labyrinthe de rues et de rocs, Jérusalem que cernent d''imprécises menaces, étouffe. Hanna a peur. Elle va entrer dans la guerre comme on sombre dans la mer. Ce bouleversant portrait de femme est aussi une remarquable analyse d''un pays toujours entre guerre et paix.

A snapshot of Israel and the West Bank in the 1980s, through the voices of its inhabitants, from the National Jewish Book Award–winning author of Judas. Notebook in hand, renowned author and onetime kibbutznik Amos Oz traveled throughout his homeland to talk with people—workers, soldiers, religious zealots, aging pioneers, desperate Arabs, visionaries—asking them questions about Israel’s past, present, and future. Observant or secular, rich or poor, native-born or new immigrant, they shared their points of view, memories, hopes, and fears, and Oz recorded them. What emerges is a distinctive portrait of a changing nation and a complex society, supplemented by Oz’s own observations and reflections, that reflects an insider’s view of a country still forming its own identity. In the Land of Israel is “an exemplary instance of a writer using his craft to come to grips with what is happening politically and to illuminate certain aspects of Israeli society that have generally been concealed by polemical formulas” (The New York Times).

Fima muses about the human condition in the squalid confines of his bachelor flat, he is a man who dreams noble dreams but cannot master reality.

Three stories of “sensuous prose and indelible imagery” that re-create the world of Jerusalem during the last days of the British Mandate (The New York Times). Refugees drawn to Jerusalem in search of safety are confronted by activists relentlessly preparing for an uprising, oblivious to the risks. Meanwhile, a wife abandons her husband, and a dying man longs for his departed lover. Among these characters lives a boy named Uri, a friend and confidant of several conspirators who love and humor him as he weaves in and out of all three stories. The Hill of Evil Counsel is “as complex, vivid, and uncompromising as Jerusalem itself” (The Nation). “Oz evokes Israeli life with the same sly precision with which Chekhov evoked pre-Revolutionary Russian life.” —Los Angeles Times

As an Israeli secret service agent, Yoel Ravid''s ability to sense the truth made him invaluable. Now widowed and retired, he lives with his mother, his mother-in-law, his daughter, and the haunting memory of his wife. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Translated by Nicholas de Lange. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Set in Israel just before the Six-Day War, this novel describes life on a kibbutz, where the founders of Israel and their children struggle to come to terms with their land and with each other. Oz''s "strangest, riskiest, and richest novel" (Washington Post Book World). Translated by Hillel Halkin. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Roman.