Amos Oz

In this powerful, hynotic work Amos Oz peers into the darkness of our lives and gives us a glimpse of what goes on beneath the surface of everyday existence. By the winner of the 2013 Franz Kafka Prize, previous winners of which include Philip Roth, Ivan Klima, Elfriede Jelinek, Harold Pinter and John Banville.

The author grew up in war-torn Jerusalem, where as a boy he witnessed first-hand the poisonous consequences of fanaticism. In this book, he brings us face to face with fanaticism he suggests ways in which we can all respond.

Seven years after their divorce, Ilana breaks the bitter silence with a letter to Alex, a world-renowned authority on fanaticism, begging for help with their rebellious adolescent son, Boaz. One letter leads to another, and so evolves a correspondence between Ilana and Alex, Alex and Michel (Ilana's Moroccan husband), Alex and his Mephistophelian Jerusalem lawyer--a correspondence between mother and father, stepfather and stepson, father and son, each pleading his or her own case. The grasping, lyrical, manipulative, loving Ilana has stirred things up. Now, her former husband and her present husband have become rivals not only for her loyalty but for her son's as well. Black Box is a record of passion, an ingenious, witty, feeling novel of contemporary life. Amos Oz at his novelistic, human, and poetic best.

As well as being one of Israel's preeminent writers of fiction, Amos Oz was one of the first voices of conscience in Israel to advocate the creation of a Palestinian state and has been a leading figure of the Peace Now movement since 1977. This superb collection of essays offers Oz's cogent views on Israel's offensive into Lebanon in 1982; fanaticism of all stripes; the PLO; Israeli terrorism; the new militarism and the growing intolerance toward the Arab population in Israel; Jewish attitudes toward the Holocaust, and its misappropriation by the right and left alike; Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah; the dream of Zionism and its failures; and much more.

"Scenes from Village Life is like a symphony, its movements more impressive together than in isolation. There is, in each story, a particular chord or strain; but taken together, these chords rise and reverberate, evoking an unease so strong it's almost a taste in the mouth . . . Scenes from Village Life is a brief collection, but its brevity is a testament to its force. You will not soon forget it."--New York Times Book Review Strange things are happening in Tel Ilan, a century-old pioneer village. A disgruntled retired politician complains to his daughter that he hears the sound of digging at night. Could it be their tenant, that young Arab? But then the young Arab hears the digging sounds too. And where has the mayor's wife gone, vanished without a trace, her note saying "Don't worry about me"? Around the village, the veneer of new wealth--gourmet restaurants, art galleries, a winery--barely conceals the scars of war and of past generations: disused air-raid shelters, rusting farm tools, and trucks left wherever they stopped. Scenes From Village Life is a memorable novel in stories by the inimitable Amos Oz: a brilliant, unsettling glimpse of what goes on beneath the surface of everyday life. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange "Finely wrought . . . Oz writes characterizations that are subtle but surgically precise, rendering this work a powerfully understated treatment of an uneasy Israeli conscience." --Publishers Weekly, starred "Informed by everything, weighed down by nothing, this is an exquisite work of art."--The Scotsman

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.

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.

Amos Oz's first book--beautifully repackaged--is a disturbing and moving collection of short stories about kibbutz life. Each of the eight stories in this volume grips the reader from the first line. Each conveys the tension and intensity of feeling in the founding period of Israel, a brand-new state with an age-old history. Some are love stories, more are hate stories, and frequently the two urges intertwine.

It's 1950s Jerusalem. Hannah Gonen has just married and is thrilled and pained by her young well-meaning husband, Michael. Haunted by her dreams of two boys who disappeared from Jerusalem after the establishment of the state of Israel, Hannah gradually withdraws from her husband into a private world of fantasy and suppressed desires.

Internationally acclaimed novelist Amos Oz grew up in war-torn Jerusalem, where as a boy he witnessed firsthand the poisonous consequences of fanaticism. In two concise, powerful essays, the award-winning author offers unique insight into the true nature of extremism and proposes a reasoned and respectful approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also comments on related issues--the Gaza pullout, Yasser Arafat's death, and the war in Iraq--in an extended interview at the end of the book. The brilliant clarity of these essays, coupled with Oz's ironic sense of humor in illuminating the serious, breathes new life into this old debate. Oz argues that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a war of religion or cultures or traditions, but rather a real estate dispute--one that will be resolved not by greater understanding, but by painful compromise. Fresh, insightful, and inspiring, How to Cure a Fanatic brings a new voice of sanity to the cacophony on Israeli-Palestinian relations--a voice no one can afford to ignore.

In this deft, masterly book, Amos Oz turns his attention away from his family--the subject of the internationally acclaimed A Tale of Love and Darkness--and toward his profession, writing. The plot: eight hours in the life of an author. The setting: Tel Aviv, a stifling, hot night. A literary celebrity is giving a reading from his new book. And 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 desire. One life story builds on another, and the author finds himself unexpectedly involved with his creations . . .

An unnamed author waits in a bar in Tel Aviv on a stifling hot night. He is there to give a reading of his work but as he sits, bored, he begins to conjure up the life stories of the people he meets. She declines and the author walks away, only to climb the steps to her flat, later that night.

Amos Oz är en av Israels främste författare och han är läst och älskad över stora delar av världen. I en lång rad romaner har han berättat om sin uppväxt och barndom i Israel, om kibbutzsystemet som han själv levde i under många år, om det judiska folkets öde och dröm om fristad på jorden, om den israeliska vardagen med dess muller av storpolitik i bakgrunden och om hoppet om fred och försoning. Men inte förrän nu, fyrtio år efter debuten, närmar han sig den smärtpunkt som hela hans författarskap kretsar kring: moderns självmord då han var tolv år gammal. Det nämns redan inledningsvis och kastar sin skugga genom hela berättelsen, men först i slutkapitlet är han framme vid hennes sista timmar i livet. Däremellan målar han upp en storslagen släktkrönika och ett magiskt självporträtt av en författare som bevittnat och levt med en nations födelse och turbulenta historia.En berättelse om kärlek och mörker är en rik och passionerad milstolpe i ett stort författarskap. Amos Oz har bland annat belönats med det prestigefyllda Prix France Culture år 2004 för detta mästerverk.

En ting er å jage en flokk fanatikere i fjellene i Afghanistan. En annen er å bekjempe fanatisme. Den nåværende krisen i verden, i Midtøsten, i Israel/Palestina, dreier seg ikke om Islams verdier. Det dreier seg heller ikke om arabisk mentalitet, som visse fanatikere påstår - i det hele tatt. Det handler om en ny utgave av den eldgamle konflikten mellom fanatisme og pragmatisme, fanatisme og pluralisme og fanatisme og toleranse ... Fanatisme er eldre enn Islam, eldre enn kristendommen, eldre enn jødedommen, eldre enn noen stat eller regjering, politiske systemer, eldre enn noen ideologi eller religion i denne verden. Fanatisme er dessverre en alltid tilstedeværende bestanddel av menneskenaturen; et ondt gen, om man ønsker å uttrykke det slik."

Rik og praktfull som en symfoni, spontan og inderlig som et barns tilståelser, sirkler denne fortellingen rundt en liten gutts mørke, og det smertefulle øyeblikket som avslutter hans fortelling, men som gjør ham til en stor forfatter. Denne fortellingen om kjærlighet og mørke handler om Amos Oz' oppvekst i Jerusalems krigsherjede gater på 1940- og 50-tallet, der han også er fanget mellom to velmenende, men svært forskjellige foreldre. Den aller mørkeste tragedien utspiller seg med morens selvmord, da Amos er tolv og et halvt. Like etter forlater han faren, forandrer etternavn, blir traktorkjører i kibbutz og finner sin vakreste kjærlighet: Nilli. Oz' fortelling dykker ned i 120 års familiehistorie og paradokser. Fortellingen rommer også sagaen om et jødisk kjærlighet-hat forhold til Europa, der graffitien på husvegger, i Vilnius, Odessa, Warszawa eller Praha, gjennom generasjoner har ropt ut sine ulike oppfordringer: "Jøder, dra tilbake til Palestina!" for dernest å be dem komme seg ut av dette forjettede land.

"Amos Oz är förnuftets röst i det kaos av lögner och hysterisk retorik som präglar den globala debatten om pågående konflikter", skriver den sydafrikanska Nobelpristagaren Nadine Gordimer i förordet till Hur man botar en fanatiker.I denna högaktuella lilla bok berättar den israeliske författaren Amos Oz med humor, insikt och klokhet om hur han ser på konflikten mellan israeler och palestinier och hur den kan lösas. Här har bägge parter rätten på sin sida och det går inte att göra en enkel indelning i "onda" och "goda". Det enda tänkbara, enligt Oz, är en framförhandlad tvåstatslösning inriktad på att uppnå varaktig fred. En mycket smärtsam kompromiss där delningen av landet nästan blir som en amputering för båda sidor. Amos Oz tar också upp den tilltagande fanatismen runtom i världen, analyserar dess karaktär och ger recept på hur man bäst bemöter den.

Ekteskapet mellom Alec og Ilana havarerte for mange år siden, med sinne og bitterhet som vrakgods - i tillegg til den nå 16 år gamle sønnen Boaz (som Alec riktignok benektet farskapet til). Ved skilsmissen ble du da også fritatt for ethvert ansvar for Boaz og enhver forpliktelse for meg. Jeg kan det der utenat, Alec. Det er ikke noe håp. Når jeg likevel skriver til deg, er det som om jeg stod ved vinduet og snakket til fjellene. Eller til mørket mellom stjernene, skriver en desperat Ilana til sin eksmann, den anerkjente og svært velstående professoren, med bønn om at han sender en pengesum for å redde Boaz fra tilsynsverger og sosialarbeidere. Brev og telegrammer flyr frem og tilbake. Gammelt hat og begjær vekkes til live. Grådighet og godhet vokser frem. Som om det fantes en svart boks med en annen sannhet, et annet perspektiv. Boaz prøver å finne sin vei gjennom kaoset som virvles opp, og flere og flere engasjerer seg i den ni måneder lange brevskriverprosessen.

Der Bestseller im suhrkamp taschenbuch: die Geschichte des Jungen Amos, der im Jerusalem der vierziger Jahre aufwächst - eine große Familien-Saga, ein Epos vom Leben und Überleben, ein Buch der Enttäuschungen und der Hoffnung.

Hvorfor skriver du? Når skriver du? Vet du på forhånd hva romanene dine skal handle om? Bruker du hendelser fra ditt eget liv? Kan vennene dine kjenne seg igjen i det du skriver om? Rukhele Reznik, 35 år gammle kvinne, møter mannlig, to ganger skilt, suksessrik bokholder-forfatter i førtiårene, når han holder en opplesning fra en av bøkene sine, en kveld i Tel-Aviv. Forfatteren lar blikket vandre rundt: Finnes det noe eller noen i lokalet som han kan bli kjent med og omskape gjennom veven med ord? Dikt om liv og død utspiller seg gjennom åtte timer i den israelske storbyen og blir til en medrivende strøm av dramatiske hendelser - virkelige eller uvirkelige - utløst av møtet mellom Rukhele og den navnløse forfatteren. Også (virkelig?) i sengen med Rukhele, inntar Forfatteren betrakterens rolle; han kan ikke fri seg fra tankene om andres tanker og gjøremål. På bekostning av hva? Sin egen impotens? Blir den selve parafrasen over et ikke-levd liv? Amos Oz har skrevet sin 31. bok og er nå inne i sitt femte tiår som forfatter. Kortromanen Dikt om liv og død kan betraktes som et konsentrat av hva denne forfatteren - med Nobel-pris kandidatur gjennom de siste ti årene - kan. Oz smetter inn i alle verdens litterære krumspring, og skildrer hvor fjerne mennesker kan være fra hverandre når de er hverandre nærmest.