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Full Description
This collection of biographies is the first of its kind, as Israeli literature is almost devoid of author biographies. They are arranged chronologically and cover a hundred years of Israeli literature; the change of style and subject matter hints at the demographical and historical transformations that have occurred during this span of time. The profiles are based on interviews carried out with all the living writers, or - in the case of deceased ones - with family members, biographers and researchers. In the early days of the State, Jaffa oranges were the pride export of Israel; and then came diamonds; and, nowadays, it is books. Israelis are going through dramatic, turbulent events, experiencing an existential, social and religious crisis. This intense life means that Israelis occupy several layers of existence, which create many kinds of personal experiences that writers in other countries seldom experience. Thus, a reading of the writers' profiles offers a different way of viewing Israel, since each writer has taken a part in events outside his or her own personal scope. All this becomes their subject matter, and Israel writing provides a wide panorama not just of literature but also of Israeli life.
Contents
Introduction, Risa Domb; abandoned people, lost places, Shmuel-Yosef Agnon (1887-1970); eyes that penetrate the abyss, Uri-Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981); lava of love and politics, Natan Alterman (1910-70); cursed by love, Leah Goldberg (1911-70); no stone is worth dying for, S. Yizhar (1916-); a secular prophet, Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000); a gentle man in a harsh land, Natan Zach (1930-); caught in a web of hallucination, Aharon Applelfeld (1932-); end of the matter, Yaacov Shabtai (1934-1981); the things to be forgotten, Dalia Ravikovitch (1936-); in search of borders, A.B. Yehoshua (1936-); the secret agent from the 18th compartment, Amos Oz (1939-); the double life of the rabbi's wife, Hannah Bat Shahar (1944-); never shall I hear God's sweet voice, Yona Wallach (1944-85); the emasculated man and the queen bee, Meir Shalev (1948-); I'm an egg without a shell, David Grossman (1954-); reminiscences of a street car, Ronit Matalon (1959-); a collector of catastrophes, Zeruyah Shalev (1959-); between motherhood and madness, Orly Castel-Bloom (1960-); Cinderella's lost sandal, Dorit Rabinyan (1972-).
