New Releases by Amos Oz

Bei der ersten Erzählung, Späte Liebe, handelt es sich um den inneren Monolog eines altgewordenen Redners für die sozialistische Bewegung im Israel der siebziger Jahre. Für diesen Mann ist der jüdische Staat in extremer Gefahr, da in Rußland ständig Komplotte zur Vernichtung Israels geschmiedet werden. Doch niemand hört auf ihn. In seiner Einsamkeit gibt er sich fanatischen Phantasien hin, wonach die israelische Armee die Sowjetunion überrollt. In der Erzählung Dem Tod entgegen evoziert Oz die Geschichte eines Kreuzzuges: Im Jahre 1096 bricht Graf Guillaume de Touron mit einem Troß auf, um durch die Eroberung Jerusalems sein Seelenheil und das seiner Mitstreiter zu erlangen. Auf ihrem Weg plündern und morden sie, denn es dient ja der guten Sache. Ihr dienen auch die Greueltaten an Juden, die sie auf ihrem Weg aufstöbern. Doch dieser Kreuzzug schlägt fehl. Das Scheitern ist bedingt durch die fanatische Einstellung der Kreuzfahrer: Sie können sich nicht vorstellen, daß Gott sie auf ihrem Pilgerzug mit solchen Hindernissen konfrontiert, und suchen folglich in ihrer Mitte nach dem Verräter. Das gemeinsamen Thema dieser beiden Erzählungen: die Vorstellung des anderen als des absolut Bösen zerbricht diejenigen, die sich diese Vorstellung zu eigen machen.

"This book consists of six conversations between Amos Oz and Shira Hadad, who worked closely with Oz as the editor of his novel Judas. The interviews, which took place toward the end of Oz''s life, about a decade after the publication of his memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness, capture the writer''s thoughts and opinions on many of the subjects that occupied him throughout his life and career, including writing and creation, guilt and love, death and the afterlife. In the first interview, "A Heart Pierced by an Arrow," Oz discusses how he became a writer, along with his writing process and its attendant challenges. "Sometimes" explores Oz''s reflections on men, women, and relationships across his experience and work. "A Room of Your Own" sketches his development as a writer on the kibbutz and his eventual decision to leave. In "When Someone Beats up Your Child," Oz discusses the critical reception of his work, and in "What No Writer Can Do" he describes his experience teaching literature, including his thoughts on contemporary modes of literary instruction. In the concluding piece, "The Lights Have Been Changing Without Us for a Long Time," he reflects on other writers and on changes he has observed in himself and others over time. The title comes from a passage in the first interview: Oz says, "What makes an apple? Water, earth, sun, an apple tree, and a bit of fertilizer. But it doesn''t look like any of those things. It''s made of them but it is not like them. That''s how a story is: it certainly is made up of the sum of encounters and experiences and listening.""--

«Afinal, ninguém sabe nada sobre ninguém. E ainda por cima, do que menos se sabe é do amor.» Em Tel Keidar, uma pequena cidade situada junto ao deserto do Neguev, a morte brutal de um jovem adolescente, possivelmente por overdose, vai interferir no equilíbrio íntimo do casal Theo e Noa, fragilizado pela diferença de idades, pela ausência de filhos, pelo tédio e pela incomunicabilidade. Com um virtuosismo inexcedível, Amos Oz faz alternar essas duas vozes narrativas, a de Theo e a de Noa, juntando-lhes ainda a do narrador, cronista anónimo que por vezes cede a palavra ao «coro» dos habitantes da cidade. Assim, como que reunindo progressivamente todas as peças de um puzzle, o autor revela-nos a intimidade mais profunda de dois seres, ao mesmo tempo que retrata as tensões de uma pequena comunidade, recheada de personagens excessivos e pitorescos. Não Chames Noite à Noite é uma preciosa sinfonia de humanidade em que Amos Oz explora com incomparável discernimento as possibilidades – e os limites – do amor e da tolerância.

El libro más personal de uno de los grandes intelectuales de nuestro tiempo. «Este volumen muestra a Amos Oz tal y como lo conocimos sus amigos: abierto y con un extraordinario sentido del humor y la ironía». DAVID GROSSMAN «Amos Oz fue un hombre sabio y generoso. Tanto quienes tuvieron la suerte de tomar un café con él como aquellos que nunca pudieron disfrutar de la oportunidad de mirarle a los ojos, reconocen la clarividencia con que analizaba nuestra realidad, su profunda comprensión de la política y la naturaleza humana». DAVID GROSSMAN ¿De qué está hecha una manzana? no es un libro de entrevistas al uso, sino la quintaesencia de un diálogo continuado, la cristalización de una amistad y unas afinidades sólidamente forjadas a lo largo de los años entre Amoz Oz, sin lugar a duda uno de los más influyentes y respetados intelectuales del siglo XX, y Shira Hadad, su editora en Israel. Influencias, libros y autores, creación e inspiración, pero también amor, matrimonio, paternidad... Lo divino y lo humano desfila por este lúcido, personal y emotivo repaso por las principales cuestiones que han sustentado la vida y la obra del que fuera siempre un incansable defensor del entendimiento, la paz y el diálogo.

The acclaimed author presents "three passionate lectures about the state of politics in Israel" in this "humorous, mournful, enraged, and uplifting" volume ( Kirkus). A National Jewish Book Award Finalist Israeli author Amos Oz has won numerous awards for his novels capturing the cultural and political complexities of his country, including the Frankfurt Peace Prize, the Primo Levi Prize, and the National Jewish Book Award. But these essays on the universal nature of fanaticism and its possible cures, on the Jewish roots of humanism and the need for a secular pride in Israel, and on the geopolitical standing of Israel in the wider Middle East and internationally, "may contain his most urgent message yet." (Ruth Eglash, Washington Post). These essays were written, Oz states, "first and foremost" for his grandchildren: they are a patient, learned telling of history, religion, and politics, to be thumbed through and studied, clung to even, as we march toward an uncertain future. "Concise, evocative . . . Dear Zealots is not just a brilliant book of thoughts and ideas—it is a depiction of one man's struggle, who for decades has insisted on keeping a sharp, strident and lucid perspective in the face of chaos and at times of madness." —David Grossman, winner of the Man Booker International Prize

In The Silence of Heaven, the world renowned Israeli novelist Amos Oz introduces us to an extraordinary masterpiece of Hebrew literature that is just now appearing in English, S. Y. Agnon''s Only Yesterday. For Oz, Agnon is a treasure trove of a world no longer available to today''s writers, yet deeply meaningful for his wonderment about God, the submerged eroticism of his writing, and his juggling of multiple texts from the historical Hebrew religious library. This collection of Oz''s reflections on Agnon, which includes an essay on the essence of his ideology and poetics, is a rich interpretive work that shows how one great writer views another. Oz admires Agnon especially for his ability to invoke and visualize the religious world of the simple folk in Eastern European Jewry, looking back from the territorial context of the Zionist revival in Palestine. The tragedy of Agnon''s visions, Oz maintains, lies in his perspicacity. Long before the Holocaust, Agnon saw the degeneration, ruin, and end of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe. He knew, too, that the Zionist project was far from being a secure conquest and its champions far from being happy idealists. Oz explores these viewpoints in a series of thick readings that consider the tensions between faith and the shock of doubt, yearnings and revulsion, love and hate, and intimacy and disgust. Although Oz himself is interested in particular ideological questions, he has the subtle sensibility of a master of fiction and can detect every technical device in Agnon''s arsenal. With the verve of an excited reader, Oz dissects Agnon''s texts and subtexts in a passionate argument about the major themes of Hebrew literature. This book also tells much about Oz. It represents the other side of Oz''s book of reportage, In the Land of Israel, this time exploring the ideologies of Jewish identity not on the land but in texts of the modern classical heritage. The Silence of Heaven hence takes us on a remarkable journey into the minds of two major literary figures.

Fiction and reality merge inside the mind of a famous Israeli author in this "hilarious and profound . . . slyly philosophical novel" ( Booklist). In this novel, Amos Oz offers a prismatic portrait of the storytelling impulse, with an extended glimpse inside the mind of a celebrated, unnamed Author. On a stiflingly hot night, the Author is in Tel Aviv to give a reading from his new book. As his attention wanders, he begins to invent lives for the strangers he sees around him: here, a self-styled cultural guru, Yakir Bar-Orian Zhitomirski; there, a love-starved professional reader, Rochele Reznik; to say nothing of Ricky the waitress, the real object of his desires. Reality and fiction blend in this ingenious, poignant work by the author of A Tale of Love and Darkness, a winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award. "A fable on themes of sex, death and writing pitched somewhere between the fictional universes of JM Coetzee and Milan Kundera." — The Guardian "The witty and melancholy recorder of his country''s brilliant sufficiencies. . . . Now Oz takes an equally witty, equally melancholy look at his role as a writer." — Los Angeles Times "From the prodigious Oz comes a delightfully elusive . . . story of imagination, talent and the transitory nature of fame. . . . Stamped with Oz''s charm and graceful skill in creating rich characters." — Publishers Weekly

Nel 1939, mentre i tedeschi avanzano in Polonia, Elisha Pomerantz, piccolo orologiaio ebreo con la passione della matematica e della musica, scappa nella foresta, lasciandosi dietro la bella e intelligente moglie Stefa. Stefa non si rende conto del pericolo, ma quando la situazione precipita, si chiude in casa, poi viene travolta anche lei dalla tempesta della guerra. Elisha, dopo aver errato per i boschi europei, arriva prima in Grecia e poi in Israele, dove trova rifugio in un piccolo kibbutz, e silenziosamente si rimette a riparare gli orologi, a cercare la musica nella matematica e la matematica nella musica. Stefa, invece, deportata in Unione Sovietica, è costretta a diventare una spia staliniana. E sognano di rivedersi. Tocca l’acqua, tocca il vento è un romanzo insolito per Amos Oz. Venato di realismo magico, ricco di simboli e di speculazioni filosofiche, a tratti misterioso, con momenti di grande dolcezza, racconta la fuga degli ebrei dallo sterminio europeo.

Publicada por primera vez en hebreo en 1978, La bicicleta de Sumji es, según palabras del propio autor, una sencilla historia sobre un niño «a quien una vez le regalaron una bicicleta y la cambió por un tren, el tren, por un perro, el perro, por un sacapuntas, y el sacapuntas, por amor».Pero es mucho más que eso. Es una historia sobre los cambios, sobre hacerse mayor, sobre los sueños. Una historia acerca de las familias, sus amores y hasta sus políticas. Es una historia sobre la ocupación y el colonialismo. Es una historia de Jerusalén. Pero, sobre todo, es una historia sobre un niño que consigue su primera bicicleta y declara su primer amor, todo en el mismo día. Y que, seguramente, llegará a los corazones de todos aquellos que alguna vez han crecido (o que nunca han dejado de hacerlo).En la tradición de personajes tan memorables como Huckleberry Finn o Holden Caulfield, Sumji, salido de la pluma magistral del novelista Amos Oz, es un pequeño gran héroe divertido, puro y muy muy simpático.

Im Winter 1959 kommt der junge Schmuel Asch nach Jerusalem, um seine Magisterarbeit zu schreiben. Allein und ohne finanzielle Unterstützung, braucht er dringend eine Nebenbeschäftigung. Eine Anzeige führt ihn ins Haus eines eigentümlichen alten Mannes namens Wald; nachts liest er ihm vor und unterhält sich mit ihm – über die Ideale des Zionismus, über die jüdisch-arabischen Konflikte. Und dort trifft er auf die geheimnisvolle Atalja Abrabanel, deren verstorbener Vater einer der maßgeblichen Anführer der zionistischen Bewegung war. Sogleich ist Schmuel gefesselt von der Schönheit und Unnahbarkeit dieser Frau. Nach und nach gelingt es Schmuel, ihr Geheimnis zu enthüllen – und damit auch das des alten Wald. Amos Oz hat einen Liebesroman geschrieben und zugleich ein Buch über das geteilte Jerusalem vor dem Sechs-Tage-Krieg, eine Geschichte seines Landes mit all seinen Konflikten, seinen Hoffnungen und seiner Verzweiflung.

Where the Jackals Howl is prize-winning author Amos Oz's first collection of stories. On publication it received immediate critical acclaim and revealed Oz to be a master craftsman probing the emotional depths of his characters. The lives of ordinary Israelis are set against the backdrop of community life in a Kibbutz. The fate of these individuals, their drives, ambitions and idiosyncrasies, are grounded by the physical and social structure of their community as Oz portrays their world as a microcosm of the wider world.

A young boy in modern-day Jerusalem trades away one possession after another, only to find something much more wonderful--his first love.

Algunos grandes escritores escriben y vuelven a escribir la primera frase de su libro cientos de veces. Algunos grandes escritores escriben y vuelven a escribir la primera frase de su libro cientos de veces, y nunca pasan de ahí. Otros desisten y, quizá desesperados, deciden empezar con lo primero que se les ocurre. Comenzar a contar una historia, dice Amos Oz, es como intentar conquistar en un restaurante a una persona totalmente desconocida. En el análisis que hace de los fragmentos iniciales de algunas novelas y relatos breves de Gógol, Kafka, Chéjov, García Márquez o Raymond Carver, así como en sus referencias a otros clásicos de la literatura universal, Amos Oz instruye, desafía, guía y entretiene. Y explora con pasión y elocuencia la razón de que el principio sea tan importante como el final, y pone de relieve los párrafos iniciales en los que los autores hacen promesas que tal vez no cumplen, o cumplen de una manera inesperada o bien hacen más de lo prometido. Un juego que atrapa tanto al escritor como al lector. "Sin la más mínima contaminación de escuela, Amos Oz consigue en este libro descubrir el funcionamiento de ese fascinante proceso por el que los lectores vamos construyendo, paso a paso, nuestras hipótesis interpretativas que el texto, página a página, ratificará o nos obligará a rectificar." Darío Villanueva, El Cultural

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award: A " gorgeous, rueful collection of eight linked stories" capturing the collective dreams of Israel in the 1950s ( Chicago Tribune). These eight interconnected stories, set in the fictitious Kibbutz Yekhat, draw masterful profiles of idealistic men and women enduring personal hardships in the shadow of one of the greatest collective dreams of the twentieth century. A devoted father who fails to challenge his daughter''s lover, an old friend, a man his own age; an elderly gardener who carries on his shoulders the sorrows of the world; a woman writing perversely poignant letters to her husband''s mistress. Each of these stories is a luminous human and literary study; together they offer an eloquent portrait of an idea, and of a charged and fascinating epoch. Award-winning writer Amos Oz, who spent three decades living on a kibbutz, is at home and at his best in this "lucid and heartbreaking" award-winning collection ( The Guardian). "Oz lifts the veil on kibbutz existence without palaver. His pinpoint descriptions are pared to perfection . . . His people twitch with life." — The Scotsman "A collection of stories . . . that boasts the sense, scope and unity of a novel . . . Breathtaking." — Irish Examiner "A complex and melancholic vision of people struggling to transcend their individuality for the sake of mundanely idealist goals." — The Times Literary Supplement

Au début de la fondation du kibboutz, nous formions une grande famille. Bien sûr, tout n''était pas rose, mais nous étions soudés. Le soir, on entonnait des mélodies entraînantes et des chansons nostalgiques jusque tard dans la nuit. On dormait dans des tentes et l''on entendait ceux qui parlaient pendant leur sommeil. L''idéal de vie en communauté a-t-il résisté à l''érosion du temps pour les habitants du kibboutz Yikha ? Ben Gourion est Premier Ministre, et la société israélienne n''est déjà plus la même que du temps des fondateurs. Alors des questions de principe et de règlement se posent aux kibboutsniks : peut-on par exemple permettre à Henia Kalisch d''envoyer son fils Yotam faire des études à l''étranger - chez son oncle qui, justement, a quitté le kibboutz - et faut-il laisser le petit Youval à la maison des enfants, malgré ses pleurs ? Mais même dans une petite communauté très attachée aux principes idéologiques, les affaires de cour prennent parfois toute la place. Yoev Carni va-t-il résister au charme de la jeune Nina, surtout quand il la croise pendant ses rondes de surveillance nocturnes ? Nahum Asherov peut-il accepter que son vieil ami David Dagan, excellent professeur et grand séducteur, s''installe avec sa fille Edna, âgée de dix-sept ans à peine ? Et que va faire Ariella, qui déborde d''affection pour l''ex-femme de son amant Boaz ? A Yikha comme ailleurs, l''on se débat avec ses chagrins d''amour et ses désirs irréalisables, mais dans un kibboutz, l''on n''est jamais seul. En huit nouvelles tragi-comiques qui se lisent comme un roman, Amos Oz scrute les passions et les faiblesses de l''être humain, fait surgir un monde englouti et nous offre surtout un grand livre mélancolique sur la solitude.

DIV Why are words so important to so many Jews? Novelist Amos Oz and historian Fania Oz-Salzberger roam the gamut of Jewish history to explain the integral relationship of Jews and words. Through a blend of storytelling and scholarship, conversation and argument, father and daughter tell the tales behind Judaism’s most enduring names, adages, disputes, texts, and quips. These words, they argue, compose the chain connecting Abraham with the Jews of every subsequent generation. Framing the discussion within such topics as continuity, women, timelessness, and individualism, Oz and Oz-Salzberger deftly engage Jewish personalities across the ages, from the unnamed, possibly female author of the Song of Songs through obscure Talmudists to contemporary writers. They suggest that Jewish continuity, even Jewish uniqueness, depends not on central places, monuments, heroic personalities, or rituals but rather on written words and an ongoing debate between the generations. Full of learning, lyricism, and humor, Jews and Words offers an extraordinary tour of the words at the heart of Jewish culture and extends a hand to the reader, any reader, to join the conversation. /div

A tale of "dazzling brilliance . . . a simple story which conveys boundless meanings both modest and diverse, set in Jerusalem directly after WWII" ( Historical Novel Society). When Soumchi, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in British-occupied Jerusalem just after World War II, receives a bicycle as a gift from his Uncle Zemach, he is overjoyed—even if it is a girl''s bicycle. Ignoring the taunts of other boys in his neighborhood, he dreams of riding far away from them, out of the city and across the desert, toward the heart of Africa. But first he wants to show his new prize to his friend Aldo. In the tradition of such memorable characters as Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield, Amos Oz''s Soumchi is fresh, funny, and always engaging. "What a difference spirit and talent make! . . . told . . . with zest and buoyant humor, from the dual viewpoint of the alternately crushed and elated Soumchi and the amused author who delights in his boyhood excesses." — Kirkus Reviews "Oz shows a remarkable ability to stay true to his character and expand him fully into a multi-faceted jewel. Soumchi is a concise read which enhances each person''s view on life, possessions, and how tender life and far-reaching imagination can be at such a sensitive age." — Historical Novel Society

Gerusalemme 1947: mentre gli eventi storici incalzano, un ragazzino ebreo di dodici anni vive un momento estremamente significativo della sua vita. Ora che è adulto lo racconta. Dopo l’Olocausto, quando si rafforza il movimento clandestino per la nascita dello stato di Israele, anche lui ha fondato con un paio di coetanei una società segreta con l’obiettivo di combattere gli inglesi, che ancora occupano la Palestina, rivendicando il diritto a una propria patria dopo tanta sofferenza. Lui è soprannominato Profi, abbreviazione di professore, perché è molto intelligente, ha una cultura enciclopedica, ama studiare le parole e leggere. Di carattere è comunque socievole e vivace, ama pensarsi coraggioso come una pantera e i suoi amici sono i due compagni di gioco e cospirazione. Almeno fino al giorno in cui non fa amicizia con il nemico, un sergente inglese che gli insegna la sua lingua in cambio di lezioni di ebraico. Da quel momento agli occhi degli altri diventa un vile traditore, e in quanto tale va punito nonostante la sua pretesa di innocenza.La pantera in cantina racconta una piccola grande storia di emozioni e sentimenti, un’avventura di amicizia e di crescita, che pone serie domande sulla colpa e sulla fiducia, in un contesto storico di epocali stravolgimenti. Profi è infatti testimone, con il suo sguardo ancora candido, la sua sensibilità intatta, di fatti più grandi di lui i cui effetti si ripercuotono inesorabilmente sulle relazioni umane..

Proposes that the murderous violence that has riven our society is driven as much by confusion as by inescapable hatred. Challenging the reductionist division of people by race, religion, and class, Sen presents a vision of a world that can be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward brutality and war. - from publisher information.

Amos Oz groeide op als enig kind van een afstandelijke, rationele vader en een romantische, depressieve moeder, in een kleine, volgepakte woning, waar boeken de hoofdbewoners zijn. Ook hij neemt zijn toevlucht tot de wereld van de boeken en observeert zijn familieleden als tragikomische personages uit het werk van Tsjechov en Tolstoj. Als hij twaalf is, pleegt zijn moeder zelfmoord. Na deze dramatische gebeurtenis die zijn leven tekent, verruilt de jongen op zijn veertiende het claustrofobische ouderlijk huis voor het buitenleven in een kibboets, waar hij op een tractor rijdt en schrijver wordt. Een verhaal van liefde en duisternis is een fenomenaal geschreven roman, vol prachtige metaforen, humor en tederheid. Op meesterlijke wijze vervlecht Oz het verhaal van zijn persoonlijke leven met honderdtwintig jaar familiegeschiedenis, die begint in Odessa en via Polen en Praag eindigt in het door vluchtelingen, pioniers en Holocaust-overlevenden bevolkte Israël. Oz is persoonlijk betrokken bij de hoogte- en dieptepunten in de culturele en politieke geschiedenis van het door oorlog getekende Israël. Een verhaal van liefde en duisternis is een groots en fabelachtig boek over een man, een familie en een natie, verwikkeld in een pijnlijke geschiedenis.

A rich and varied selection of writings from the early sixties to the present by Amos Oz, one of Israel s leading novelists, public intellectuals, and political activists. The Amos Oz Reader draws on Oz''s entire body of work and is loosely grouped into four themes: the kibbutz, the city of Jerusalem, the idea of a "promised land," and his own life story. Included are excerpts from his celebrated novels, among them Where the Jackals Howl, A Perfect Peace, My Michael, Fima, Black Box, and To Know a Woman. Nonfiction is represented by selections from Under This Blazing Light, The Slopes of Lebanon, In the Land of Israel, and Oz s masterpiece, A Tale of Love and Darkness. With an illuminating introduction by Robert Alter. Praise for A Tale of Love and Darkness "A[n] ingenious work that circles around the rise of a state, the tragic destiny of a mother, a boy s creation of a new self." The New Yorker "Detailed and beautiful As he writes about himself and his family, Oz is also writing part of the history of the Jews." Los Angeles Times AMOS OZ is a prize-winning novelist and essayist whose honors include the Prix Femina, the Israel Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. Most recently, his memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, received the Koret Jewish Book Award. He lives in Arad. NITZA BEN-DOV is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at Haifa University, as well as a scholar of biblical poetics. ROBERT ALTER is an esteemed scholar and translator. His recent translations include The Book of Psalms and The Five Books of Moses. "

Tràgic, còmic i absolutament sincer, aquest llibre de memòries és alhora una gran saga familiar i l''autoretrat d''un escriptor que va ser testimoni del naixement d''una nació i en va viure la seva història turbulenta. És la història d''un noi que creix a Jerusalem als anys quaranta i cinquanta, en un petit apartament ple de llibres en dotze idiomes i rodejat de parents que en parlen gairebé la mateixa quantitat. Quan Oz tenia dotze anys, la seva mare es va suïcidar, una tragèdia que va canviar la seva vida. Va abandonar la família i la comunitat de somiadors, erudits i fracassats homes de negocis en què vivia i es va unir a un quibuts, va canviar de nom, es va casar, va tenir fills i, finalment, es va fer escriptor, així com participant actiu en la vida política d''Israel. Un relat de cultures i vides en conflicte, de sofriment i perseverança, d''amor i de foscor. Amos Oz, Premi Príncep d''Astúries de les Lletres 2007

«Escribo porque las personas a las que amaba han muerto. Escribo porque cuando era niña tenía una gran capacidad de amar y ahora esa capacidad de amar está muriendo. No quiero morir.» Así comienza el relato en primera persona de Jana, la historia de un matrimonio y de su ruptura. La que ha sido definida como una moderna madame Bovary israelí es una estudiante de literatura hebrea. En la universidad conoció a un geólogo, Mijael Gonen, se casó con él y, poco a poco, una enrarecida distancia se abrió paso entre los dos. La narración, muy femenina, de Amos Oz avanza con estilo breve, cotidiano, y sondea los pensamientos más ocultos y las emociones más profundas en la confesión de la protagonista. Con rara habilidad, el autor logra captar los mínimos matices del carácter y del sentimiento, saca a la luz, con lucidez y delicadeza, los motivos de la frustración y del sufrimiento, y llega al origen del progresivo encerrarse de Jana en un mundo trepidante de maravillosas aventuras imaginarias, fantasías sexuales y terribles pesadillas, en el cual «su» querido y tranquilo Mijael nunca logrará penetrar. Como telón de fondo de esta magnífica novela psicológica, la silueta de una ciudad, Jerusalén, en los años cincuenta, sobre la que aletea el espectro de la guerra.

The International Bestselling memoir from award-winning author Amos Oz, "one of Isreal''s most prolific writers and respected intellectuals" (The New York Times), about his turbulent upbringing in the city of Jerusalem in the era of the dissolution of Mandatory Palestine and the beginning of the State of Israel. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award "[An] ingenious work that circles around the rise of a state, the tragic destiny of a mother, a boy’s creation of a new self."—The New Yorker A family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother’s suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and community to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation. "One of the most enchanting and deeply satisfying books that I have read in many years."—New Republic

This novel is at once a haunting love story and a reflective portrait of place."--Jacket.