Six Israeli Novellas (Verba Mundi (Paperback))

The writers whose work is included in Six Israeli Novellas, edited by Gershon Shaked, possess a wide range of styles and interests. David Grossman's excellent "Yani on the Mountain" explores the impact of the 1973 Yom Kippur War on a group of young Israelis living on an army base that is about to be demolished. Ruth Almog's "Shrinking" portrays, with the psychological acuity of Virginia Woolf, a lonely woman's painfully close bond with her father. And Benjamin Tammuz's "My Brother" is a decidedly contemporary variation on the ancient story of Jacob and Isaac. The editor's brief, intelligent introduction to this valuable anthology contains an extremely astute summary of the many reasons that these novellas are so compelling. "[W]hat in other literatures plays itself out across lands and eras becomes more concentrated here, more compressed and compacted--but for that very reason, more intense." --Michael Joseph Gross